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' 















3Stii Congress, 
1st Session. 


/ 

SENATE. 


(Ex. Doc. 
\ No. 17. 



MESSAGE 




PRESIDENT OF 


OF THE 

THE UNITED 


states” - ' r 


COMMUNICATING, 

In answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 26th ultimo , correspondence vhth 
the rebel authorities in relation to the exchange of prisoners. 


February 8, 1884. — Read, referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, and 

ordered to be printed. 


To the Senate: 

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 26th ultimo, requesting 
“a copy of all the correspondence between the authorities of the United States 
and the rebel authorities on the exchange of prisoners, and the different propo¬ 
sitions connected with that subject,” I transmit herewith a report from the 
Secretary of War, and the papers with which it is accompanied. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Washington, February 4, 1864. 


War Department, 
Washington City, February 4, 1864. 


Sir : I have the honor to return herewith the resolution of the Senate of the 
26th ultimo, requesting “ a copy of all the correspondence between the authori¬ 
ties of the United States and the rebel authorities on the exchange of prisoners, 
and the different propositions connected with that subject,” and to transmit a 
copy of the report of Major General Hitchcock, commissioner for exchanges, 
with the accompanying papers. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 


The President. 


Secretary of War. 


Washington City, D. C., 

February 4, 1S64. 

Sir : I have the honor to enclose a copy of “ the correspondence between the 
authorities of the United States and the rebel authorities on the exchange of 
prisoners, and the different propositions connected with that subject,” called for 
by the Senate of the United States by resolution of the 26th ultimo. 











2 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


\LL 

This correspondence has been furnished by General Meredith down to the 
period when Major General Butler entered upon duty in connexion with the 
subject of exchanges, and since then by General Butler himself. 

I have added a copy of the instructions to General Butler on the subject, 
dated Fort Monroe, December 17, 1863, signed by myself, in conformity with 
your orders of the previous day, a copy of which is also annexed; and I have 
added a copy of the cartel, so frequently referred to in this correspondence. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General Volunteers , Commissioner for Exchanges. 

Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War. 


Headquarters Department of Va., Seventh Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe , Virginia , January 16, 1863. 

General : I have the honor to encluse to you a copy of the Richmond 
Enquirer, containing Jeff. Davis’s message. His determination, avowed in most 
insolent terms, to deliver to the several State authorities all commissioned 
officers of the United States that may hereafter be captured, will, I think, be 
persevered in. You will recollect that after the proclamation of Jeff. Davis, of 
the 23d of December, 1862, I urgently advised another interview, (the last one 
I had with Mr. Ould, and in which very important exchanges were declared;) 
I then did so anticipating that the cartel might be broken, and wishing to make 
sure of the discharge from their parole of 10,000 of our men. This was effected, 
and in a manner so advantageous to our government that we gained in the 
count of 20,000 exchanged about 7,000 men. I had almost equal good success 
in the exchange declared on November 11, 1862. If an open rupture should 
now occur in the execution of the cartel, we are all well prepared for it. I am 
endeavoring to get away from confederate prisons all our officers captured pre¬ 
viously to the date of the message of Jeff. Davis, (the 12th instant,) with what 
success I shall know early next week. 

As you may receive this copy of the message in advance of any other, may I 
ask that it be transmitted to the Secretary of War, or the general-in-chief, with 
the additional information conveyed in this communication to you. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieut. Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Major General Hitchcock, 

Commissioner for the Exchange of Prisoners. 


Copy of the paragraph in the message of Jefferson Davis , as published in the 
Richmond Enquirer, January 15, 1863, and referred to in the preceding 
letter. 

“ So far as regards the action of this government on such criminals as may 
attempt its execution, I confine myself to informing you that I shall, unless in 
your wisdom you deem some other course more expedient, deliver to the several 
State authorities all commissioned officers of the United States that may liere- 

;es embraced in the proclama- 
witli the laws of those States 


alter be captured by our forces in any of the Sta 
tion, that they may be dealt with in accordance 







~i< -r/ 'cT ,y t> 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


3 


providing for the punishment of criminals engaged in exciting servile insurrec¬ 
tion. 

“ The enlisted soldiers I shall continue to treat as unwilling instruments in 
the. commission of these crimes, and shall direct their discharge and return to 
their homes on the proper and usual parole.” 


Richmond, Virginia, 

January 17, 1863. 

Sir : I regretted very much, on reaching City Point, meridian, on the M5th 
instant, to find you had left. I did not receive any notice that you would be 
obliged to leave at eleven o’clock on that day. If I had, however, I do not see 
how I could have been at City Point any sooner. 

In your communication of the 14th instant you desire to know whether the 
federal commissioned officers now prisoners will be released. I have already 
furnished you with an official copy of the proclamation of President Davis, dated 
December 23, 1862. In conformity therewith officers will not be released on 
parole, but will be exchanged for those of corresponding rank. If you have any 
confederate officer in your possession and will deliver him, an officer of like 
grade will be delivered to you, and they will be mutually declared to be ex¬ 
changed. So if you have released any officer on parole, we will deliver to you 
an officer of corresponding rank, and declare them exchanged. The federal 
officers, however, now in our possession, will not be surrendered to you on parole. 
This rule will apply only to commissioned officers. We are ready at any time 
to release on parole and deliver to you your non-commissioned officers and 
privates. 

This course has been forced upon the confederate government, not only by 
the refusal of the authorities of the United States to respond to the repeated 
applications of this government in relation to the execution of Mumford, but by 
their persistence in retaining confederate officers who were entitled to parole 
and exchange. You have now of captures that are by no means recent many 
officers of the confederate service who are retained in your military prisons east 
and west. Applications have been made for the release of some without success, 
and others have been kept in confinement so long as to justify the conclusion 
that you refuse both parole and exchange. 

One prominent instance I will bring to your notice : General B. F. Butler has 
retained Brigadier General Clarke, and thirteen others, for several months. At 
the latest advices received by us they were still in custody. During the whole 
of the time that they have been thus detained, we had a large excess of federal 
prisoners, all of whom were either promptly exchanged or delivered to you on 
parole. 

This is by no means a solitary case. I have now, and have had for a long 
time, authentic evidence in possession of the retention of a large number of 
confederate officers by your military authorities. Several prominent cases have 
also very recently been presented to me. You are very well aware that this 
has been a subject of complaint ever since the adoption of the cartel. In view 
of all these facts, the confederate government has determined to refuse any 
parole to your officers until the grievances of which it has complained are re¬ 
dressed. Of course this applies to such commissioned officers as were captured 
before the date of President Davis’s message. He himself has indicated what 
disposition will be made of such as may be captured after that date. 

In your communication of the 14th instant you also refer to the case of Mrs. 
Piggott, who, you say, “ was taken from her home at Williamsburg, Virginia, 
with forty of her slaves, and who is now detained at Richmond, or some other 
place within the confederate lines.” 



4 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Without any comment upon the singularity of the request, that slaves made 
free by President Lincoln’s proclamation should be promptly returned as the 
property of Mrs. Piggott, I inform you that Mrs. Piggott was released from 
custody on habeas corpus a long time ago. She is a citizen of Virginia, respon¬ 
sible to the laws of that State, and the confederacy. The confederate and State 
authorities will not allow any interference by the United States with the course 
of justice in any one of the confederate States. They will.not entertain even 
a protest. No fears of retaliation upon “ ladies,” or any one else, will ever make 
them relinquish their rightful and exclusive control. 

I perceive by your published notice of exchanges that you have made a mis¬ 
take in declaring exchanged the federal prisoners paroled at Goldsboro’, and 
delivered at Washington, North Carolina. These are the thirteen hundred that 
I have so constantly pressed upon you, and for whom you have given no equiva¬ 
lent or credit. You have the list in your possession. I delivered it to you that you 
might examine more fully into the matter. Those men have not been exchanged. 
I hope you will make the proper correction. 

When shall I see you at City Point again ? 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


City Point, Virginia, January 14, 1863. 

Sir : May I have the pleasure of an early as possible interview with you. I 
desire to know whether, in compliance with the terms of the cartel, the commis¬ 
sioned United States officers now in your hands are to be released, and also what 
disposition has been made of the case of Mrs. Piggott, who was taken from her 
home at Williamsburg, Va., with forty of her slaves, and who is now detained 
at Richmond or some other place within the confederate lines. 

Major General Dix, sometime since, communicated with you on this case. 

He has received pressing applications to retaliate by the arrest and imprison¬ 
ment of ladies within our lines, whose avowed sentiments and conduct have been 
persistently disloyal to the United States government. Can you not have this 
matter arranged by the prompt return of Mrs. Piggott and all her property to 
her home. 

I ain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WM. H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe, Virginia , January 18, 1863. 

Sir : Will you please send me by Captain Mulford a reply to my communi¬ 
cation to you of the 14th instant, in reference to your retention of United 
States officers in violation of the cartel, and also to the case of Mrs. Piggott. 
Will you also inform me whether you will release the citizen prisoners now 
held by you, and especially those captured by General Stuart in his raid into 
Maryland and Pennsylvania. 

William J. Peters, whose release you promised me some time ago, has reported 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


5 


to me, with a copy of parole to procure the release of one White, a citizen, or 
return in thirty clays. I should have been glad if his release had been uncon¬ 
ditional, as agreed on, hut having given his parole, he has diligently, hut unsuc¬ 
cessfully, sought out White. Only three Whites have been found on the rolls, 
two at Fort McHenry and one at Fort Monroe, but all were released some time 
since. It being impossible to furnish the equivalent named, will you accept for 
him one Henry Vogliler, now held at Baltimore. If so, please notify me 
through Captain Mulford. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe, January 21, 1863. 

General : I have the honor to enclose to you communications just received 
from Mr. Robert Ould, confederate agent for exchange of prisoners ; also a 
copy of communication of December 11. These show the condition of matters 
as connected with citizen prisoners. I would recommend that no civilians be 
released from any of our prisons to go south, unless to procure exchanges. 
Such exchanges can be made. Before resorting to reprisals, would it not be 
better to use up all the material for exchanges now on hand ? The mail is just 
closing,, and I am obliged to write in haste. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Major General Hitchcock, 

Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Headquarters Department ok Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe, January 23, 1863. 

Permit me to call your attention to a point in our exchanges, which is opera¬ 
ting (though probably unnoticed by you) with great unfairness. 

At our last interview, and not anticipating such decisions as you have arrived 
at in reference to exchanges of United States officers, in order to facilitate our 
business, I assented to the plan of exchanging by captures, and reducing to 
equivalents in privates. The result now is, that while I reduced to such equiva¬ 
lent all your officers captured at Fredericksburg, who had been paroled and 
sent through the lines, you retain all of our officers captured at the same place. 
W hatever action may be taken in violation of the cartel, in reference to officers 
captured at Fredericksburg, shall be released on their parole. Will you please 
send me your decision on this point. The declaration of exchange of our offi¬ 
cers and men paroled at Goldsborough, N. 0., May 22, 1862, and delivered at 
Washington, N. C., was only intended to apply to seven, (7,) and not to the 
large capture referred to by you. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould. 




6 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


City Point, March 31, 1863. 


Sir : In the delivery of officers which you intend to make to us, you must 
take into consideration the large number (more than two hundred) whom we 
have captured, paroled, and released since the President’s proclamation. I am 
entitled to equivalent for them. You can bring in any paroles of a like kind 
yourself. 

Upon your application I recognized this principle in the case of the Fred¬ 
ericksburg officers. Even after I had ceased delivering officers, 1 surrendered 
to you of those in our possession a number equal to those whom you paroled 
at Fredericksburg. 

I ask the recognition of the same principle now. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 


Lieut. Colonel Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Agent of Exchange. . 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe , Virginia , April 3, 1863. 

Sir : I send you to-day -- prisoners of war. Among them are nine 

officers, two of whom, Lieutenant A. A. Scott, 6th Alabama volunteers, cap¬ 
tured at South Mountain, September 14, 1862, and Captain C. R. Sherman, 
captured at Georgetown, October 18, 1862, are exchanged. 

For the others, Major C. Breckenridge, 2d Virginia cavalry; Major Rufus 
Wharton, North Carolina sharpshooters; Captain John Alexander, 2d Virginia 
cavalry; Lieutenant H. B. Bickester, 8th Virginia cavalry; Lieutenant 0. H. 
Cox, 21st Mississippi volunteers; Adjutant T. B. Hutchinson, 8tli Virginia 
cavalry; Lieutenant Charles E. Robinson, 9tli Virginia cavalry, I ask equiv¬ 
alents from the Murfreesboro’ officers; Captain Mulford is instructed to bring 
them. Please send me Major D. J. Hall, 89th Illinois, who is one of them. 
Please send me by Captain Mulford lists of our officers held by you, that I 
may be enabled to arrange for the delivery of the equivalents in your officers. 
I desire to know when all our officers, naval and military, will be at Richmond 
ready for delivery. The revocation of the offensive order of Mr. Jefferson 
Davis, relating to United States officers and the observance of the cartel, will 
settle all questions relating to officers. Until this be done, all exchange of 
officers must be special. I will deliver to you in exchange for United States 
officers equivalents in number or rank of confederate officers. If we have not 
the equivalent number in rank, enough of lower grade will be exchanged to 
secure the release of all you hold. The number of officers captured and 
paroled by us at Fredericksburg was in excess of United States officers cap¬ 
tured at the same place, and delivered by you at City Point. Sergeant Muller, 
a prisoner of war, has not yet been delivered. Will you send him by this 
boat % The Murfreesboro’ and Arkansas Post prisoners are now' on their way here, 
and are expected to arrive at the rate of 500 daily. Some have already been 
sent to you. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 




EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


7 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe, April 8, 1863. 

Sir : The best mode of arranging all questions relating to exchange of 
officers is to revoke, formally or informally, the offensive proclamation relating 
to our officers. I simply ask that you say by authority that such proclamation 
is revoked. The spirit of that proclamation was the infliction of personal in¬ 
dignities upon our officers, and as long as it remains unrepealed it can be at 
any moment put in force by your authorities. What assurance have we that 
it will not be ? 

I earnestly desire a return to the cartel in all matters pertaining to officers, 
and until such be the case, and a uniformity of rule be thereby established, our 
exchange of officers must be special. Some of our officers paroled at Vicks¬ 
burg, were subsequently placed in close confinement, and are now so held. If 
hereafter we parole any of your officers, such paroles will be offset against any 
which you may possess. At present the exchanges will be confined to such 
equivalents as are held in confinement on either side. I hope you will soon be 
able to remove all difficulties about officers, by the revocation I have mentioned. 
By reference to the map, you will see that Fort Delaware is en route to Fort 
Monroe. It is used as a depot fur collecting of prisoners sent from other places 
for shipment here, and is from its peculiar position well adapted for convenience 
for exchange. 

If any mistake be found in the account of men paroled by Lieutenant 
Colonel Richards, at Oxford, Mississippi, on December 22, 1862, it can be 
rectified when we meet. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Richmond, April 11, 1863. 

Sir : Your letters of the 8th instant have been received. I am very much 
surprised at your refusal to deliver officers for those of your own who have been 
captured, paroled, and released by us sfnce the date of the proclamation and 
message of President Davis. That refusal is not only a flagrant breach of the 
cartel, but can be supported by no rule of reciprocity or equity. 

It is utterly useless to argue any such matter. 

I assure you that not one officer of any grade will be delivered to you until 
you change your purpose in that respect. 

You have charged us with breaking the cartel. With what sort of justice 
can that allegation be supported, when you delivered only a few days ago over 
ninety officers, most of whom had been forced to languish and suffer in prison 
for months before we were compelled, by that and other reasons, to issue the re¬ 
taliatory order of which you complain? Those ninety-odd are not one-half of 
those whom you unjustly hold in prison. On the other hand, I defy you to 
name the case of one who is confined by us whom our government has declared 
exchanged. 

Is it your idea that we are to be bound by every strictness of the cartel, while 
you are at liberty to violate it for months, and that, too, not only in a few in¬ 
stances, but in hundreds? You know that our refusal to parole officers was a 
matter exclusively of retaliation. It was based only upon your refusal to ob¬ 
serve the requirements of the cartel. All that you had to do to remove the 



8 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


obnoxious measure of retaliation was to observe the provisions of the cartel, and 
redress the wrongs which had been perpetrated. 

Your last resolution* if persisted in, settles the matter. You need not send 
any officers to City Point, with the expectation of getting an equivalent in offi¬ 
cers, so long as you refuse to deliver any for those whom we have released on 
parole in Tennessee and Kentucky. 

If captivity, privation, and misery are to be the fate of officers on both sides 
hereafter, let God judge between us. I have struggled in this matter as if it 
had been a matter of life and death to me. I am heart-sick at the termination, 
but I have no self reproaches. » 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OIJLD, 


Lieut. Col. Wm. H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Agent of Exchange. 


Headquarters Department of 1 Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe , April 13, 1863. 

Sir : I have just received your letter of the 1 1th instant, and am too much hur¬ 
ried to reply, as I wish in detail, to the several points therein contained You 
are all wrong in your premises, arguments, and conclusions I agree with you 
that it is useless to argue the question, and I unite with you in the expression 
of your earnest desire to alleviate the miseries of captivity of officers who have 
been so needlessly and so cruelly subjected to it by the proclamation and mes¬ 
sage of Mr. Jefferson Davis. I will acknowledge all proper paroles of our offi¬ 
cers by delivering to you equivalents of our officers, after the special exchanges 
of those now in confinement are carried out. This is, I believe, what you ask 
for. Will you frankly inform me if it be the intention of your authorities to put 
in force the offensive portion of the proclamation and message so often alluded 
to, when the fortunes of war may place the greater number of our officers in 
your hands. Your officers are now in Fort Delaware ready for delivery, and 
your reply will determine whether they are to come for exchange, or to be re¬ 
turned to the west. 

Please be clear, frank, and explicit in your reply. Captain Mulford is in¬ 
structed to bring it to me. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WM. H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe , April 20, 1863. 

Sir : On the 11th instant I sent to City Point, in charge of Lieutenant Colone* 
Matson, ten (10) confederate officers who had not been exchanged. I enclose 
herewith a copy of my letter of that date, giving the names and rank of the 
officers. Lieutenant Colonel Matson disobeyed his instructions in not bringing 
back with him equivalents for these officers. Please deliver these equivalents 
now to the officer bearing this. 

In my letter of the 13th instant, a copy of which is enclosed for your more con¬ 
venient reference, I stated my willingness to exchange officers on the terms 
therein mentioned. I wish to know whether those terms are assented to by you 




EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


a 

and I desire a response to the other questions therein propounded. The pecu¬ 
liar position of this question of exchange of officers renders these questions 
proper, and 1 regret extremely having received, through ray agent, so unsatis¬ 
factory, and I may say exceptionable notice, (not reply,) of which I enclose a 
copy. Until you think proper to inform me what your understanding is in 
reference to our officers, I certainly cannot move one step further toward send¬ 
ing to City Point any of the large number of confederate officers, now at Fort 
Delaware, awaiting your action. 

I again ask the release of Lieutenant Colonel Douglass Hapeman and Major 
J. II. Widmer, 104t,h regiment Illinois volunteers, Hartsville officers declared 
exchanged, and yet held by you. Please send them, and also one (1) captain 
and one (1) lieutenant due to me, as you will see on reference to my letter of the 
13th instant, and which enclosed duplicate lists of officers sent to you. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WM. H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Richmond, April 22, 1863. 

Sir: Your communication of the 21st has been received. I did not answer 
your communication of the 13th instant, because 1 really had nothing more to 
say in relation to the subject-matter than what was contained in the letter to 
which that was a reply. In my unofficial note to Captain Mulford, I cer¬ 
tainly did not intend to be discourteous, or to write anything “exceptionable.”' 
You will do me the justice to acknowledge that in all the difficult and irritating 
subjects which have engaged our attention in correspondence, I have never 
stepped beyond the bounds of decorous propriety. I take pleasure in saying 
the same in reference to yourself. 

In my former communications, and in personal interview, I demanded that 
equivalents should be given for the officers whom we had paroled and released, 
since the 10th of December last, in Tennessee and Kentucky. I distinctly put 
those officers upon the same footing as that of those whom we now hold in confine¬ 
ment I only asked that in exchange, officers paroled and released should be 
put in the same category as those who were retained. 

You had complained that we did not parole your officers. Although, in your 
communication of the 13th, you agreed to give equivalents for such officers as 
we had retained, you refused to give any at present for those whom we had 
paroled and released. In other words, in cases where we had pursued a course 
which you had declared objectionable, an equivalent would be given; but where 
we had conformed to your own demands in the release of officers, none should 
be given. I must confess I was very much surprised at your letter of the 8th 
instant. I expressed that surprise in perhaps very strong language in my com¬ 
munication of the 11th instant. I intended in that letter to say to you very 
distinctly, that unless the released officers in the west were put upon the same 
footing as those whom we held in confinement, no more deliveries of offi¬ 
cers would be made to you. I came to the determination with great regret. 
Your letter of the 13th did not mend matters much. I thought our demand was 
so fair, so equitable, that no one could refuse it. When, therefore, you sought, 
in your communication of the 13th, to put the released western officers upon a 
different footing from those held by us, I considered that you refused to acknow¬ 
ledge our fair claim. 

In your letter of the 13th instant you say, “I will acknowledge all proper 



10 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


paroles of our officers, by delivering to you equivalents of your officers, after the spe¬ 
cial exchanges of those now in confinement are carried out.” That was not what I 
asked. I demanded simply that the western released officers should be put upon 
the same footing with those held by us. I did not wish to have any controversy 
about “proper paroles,” nor did I think it right that such cases should be post¬ 
poned until all those in our custody were released. 1 thought, and still think, 
that the exchange should be simultaneous. You have an excess of officers— 
more, perhaps, than those now held by us, added to such as we have paroled. 

One boat can accommodate all. Why, then, postpone the delivery of equiva¬ 
lents, except to allow distracting questions to intervene, which might defeat, the 
delivery? If you have any paroles, I will acknowledge them; if any are here¬ 
after presented by you, up to the present date, I will acknowledge them, if you 
will give me the same privilege. What can be more fair, equal, and reciprocal 
than all this ? If you think I will press upon you paroles which are not “ proper,” 
let us meet together when the officers are brought up, or before. I will offer 
none to you but such as are most clearly within our former rules of practice. 
If you will send to City Point all the officers you have, you will receive no 
detriment. 

If there are more than we have, (counting paroles,) I pledge you an equiva¬ 
lent, either in men already delivered to you, or, if you prefer it, in officers here¬ 
after captured, and as soon as captured. 

No proclamation or message shall affect the surplus. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel Wm. H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe, May 22, 1863. 

Sir: I have the honor to enclose to you copies of General Orders No. 49 and 
No. 100 of War Department, announcing regulations and instructions for the 
government of the United States forces in the field, in the matter of .paroles. 
These, together with the stipulations of the cartel, will govern our army. I 
would invite your special attention to article 7 of the cartel, which provides 
that all prisoners of war shall be sent to places of delivery therein specified. 
The execution of this article will obviate much discussion and difficulty, growing 
out of the mode, time, and place of giving paroles. No paroles or exchanges 
will be considered binding, except those, under the stipulations of said article, 
permitting commanders of two opposing armies to exchange or release on parole 
at other points mutually agreed on by said commanders. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WM. H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


11 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Virginia, May 22, I 860 . 

Sir : In several of your late communications you have appealed to me for the 
release of political prisoners held by us. I am ready to deliver every one of 
them when you do the same charity. Until then not one of them shall be re¬ 
leased except at our own pleasure. You asked, in a late communication, for 
the release of the sheriff of Barbour county. Are you aware that you now 
hold some half dozen or more of harmless and inoffensive old men as hostages, 
whom you do not even pretend to release, and yet ask the sheriff’s deliverance? 
You have now thousands of helpless non-combatants in your prisons—not ar¬ 
rested as dangerous persons to your armies, but incarcerated because it is sup¬ 
posed they are loyal to their own country. Their number is increasing every 
day. I will listen to no proposition for the release of non-combatants that is 
not based upon the delivery of all whom you have in custody, coupled with 
some distinct written understanding as to future conduct in respect to such cap¬ 
tures. 

If this is not agreeable, let God save the right. I hope there will be no fur¬ 
ther mistake between us in regard to this matter. I trust I have made myself 
sufficiently distinct. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel Wm. H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Lepartmcnt, Richmond, Virginia , May 22, 1863. 

Sir : You are very well aware that for the last six months I have been pre¬ 
senting to you lists of confederate officers and soldiers and confederate citizens 
who have been detained by your authorities in their prisons. Some of them, 
upon my remonstrance, have been released and sent to us. By far the greater 
number still remain in captivity. I am satisfied that you have made strenuous 
exertions to have those persons released, and to carry out in good faith the agree¬ 
ments which we have made. Even those exertions have proved of little avail. 

Nothing now remains but for me to give you formal notice that our govern¬ 
ment will resort to retaliation in every case which lias heretofore been brought 
to your attention where the wrong complained of has not been redressed. The 
confederate authorities will exercise their discretion in selecting such prisoners 
as they think best, whether officers or privates, in this purpose of retaliation. 
You will be notified in each case I am now preparing a list of such officers 
and men as are reserved for retaliation. As soon as the parties for whom they 
are held are delivered to us, the hostages will be released. 

I have thus frankly informed you of our purposes before they are put into 
actual execution, for the double purpose of preventing any imputation of bad 
faith and of giving you an opportunity of saving a resort to so stern a remedy. 
You have at this moment, in your prisons, confederate officers whom you have 
held over twelve months without charges or trial. They have been fairly ex¬ 
changed by our agreements, and ought to have been delivered long ago. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 


Lieut. Colonel Wm. H. Ludlow. 


ROBERT OULD, 
Agent of Exchange. 



12 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

Seventh Army Corps , Fort Monroe , May 25, 1563. 

Sir: You threaten retaliation in your letter of the 22dinstant,in case certain 
parties whom you have demanded are not delivered to you. I beg leave to in¬ 
form you that no deliveries of any kind will be made to you under such threats. 
If such threats are withdrawn, deliveries can be made of parties properly en¬ 
titled to release, but not otherwise. Three-fourths or nine-tenths of the cases of 
which you have furnished memoranda have been released and delivered -to you. 
If, before the necessary investigations in the remaining cases have been made, 
you put in practice retaliation, either upon our officers or men, I give you formal 
notice that the United States government will exercise their discretion in select¬ 
ing such persons as they think best, whether officers or privates, for the purpose 
of counter retaliation. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WM. H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and, Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


City Point, May 31, 1863. 

Sir : I call your attention again to a matter of which I often heretofore com¬ 
plained. By to-day’s arrival you have sent several citizens as prisoners of war, 
and several discharged soldiers, as also prisoners of war. 

One of the men, T. H. Moreland, is put down as belonging to the 1st Kentucky 
cavalry, who never was in our service in any sort of capacity in his life ; who 
never was in the field, and not even a guerilla or bushwhacker. Captain Mul- 
ford heard his statement. He says he was compelled to sign a parole at Louis¬ 
ville as a member of the 1st Kentucky cavalry, under a threat if he did not so 
do he would be put in prison with ball and chain during the war. 11 ■ protested 
against it in the hearing of more than fifty men here, who were lie e this very 
day. There are four or five other cases of exactly the same sort in your roll 
delivered to me this day. 

The memoranda are made on your roll. Is this to be allowed? 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel William H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


City Point, June 1 , 1863. 

Sir : I was about proceeding to Portress Monroe, or as near to it as I would 
be allowed to go, when Captain Mulford came up the river. I am afraid your 
proceeding in relation to declarations of the exchanges of your men will lead to 
complication and difficulty. The Holly Springs capture, according to my recol¬ 
lection, pays off the number due to you at our last interview. You have not 
sent more than six hundred since, including to-day’s arrival. For that number 
you declare exchanged five regiments, (91st Illinois, 51st. Indiana, 73d Indi¬ 
ana, 3d Ohio, and 80th Illinois,) also the captures at Mount Sterling, and the 
men of the Indianola. 

How many the Mount Sterling capture are I do not know, but I am very sure 
the aggregate of the above greatly exceeds the balance due to you. 




EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


13 


I protest against the declarations of exchange where the number is not known 
and agreed upon by us. You can readily perceive without my statement what 
grave objections might be made to such a proceeding. Why not make ex¬ 
changes by rolls of which we can have a copy, and in relation to which we have 
mutually agreed, as in the Holly Spring capture ? How am I to know how 
many men of the 80th Illinois regiment were taken prisoners, or when or where 
they were captured ? I throw out these observations as suggestions for your 
reflection. 1 think you will agree with me that when we or you are in excess 
of prisoners, neither party should declare any exchange except where the lists 
have been adjusted between us, and the number declared to be exchanged 
known and agreed on between us. I do not so much object to your overrunning 
the number due to you, as the certainty of great complication and prospect of 
misunderstanding by pursuing the course you have done in this case. 

You have not given me any reply even yet to my inquiries in relation to 
your declaration of exchange as to parties captured at Muldeaughi hill, or the 
66th Indiana. I hope I shall not be compelled to wait much longer. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel William H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe, June 3, 1863. 

Sir : You informed me at our last interview that you were instructed not to 
deliver any of the officers of Colonel Straight’s command captured at or near 
Cedar Bluff’, Georgia, about the first of May last. I now make a formal demand 
for them under the cartel, and tender to you their equivalents in your own offi¬ 
cers now in our hands. If this demand and tender be refused, please frankly 
state the reasons therefor, that the issues presented may be fully understood and 
promptly met. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe, Virginia , June 3, 1863. 

Sir : Will you please furnish me with a copy of the act of the confederate 
congress, which you promised me, and which directs some certain disposition of 
our captured officers commanding negro troops, and also of the troops them¬ 
selves. 

Will you also please inform me if it be the intention of your authorities to 
execute this act. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and, Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 





14 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Virginia, June 5, 1863. 

Sir : You ask me for a frank statement of the reason for the detention of 
the officers of Straight’s command. I will give it to you, as I will in every 
case when you ask it. I think you will find it franker than your answer to any 
inquiry as to whether you intended to deliver the officers who have heretofore 
been declared exchanged. 

Allegations have been officially received from the highest authority in Ala¬ 
bama, charging these officers with grave offences, as well against the laws of 
that State as the usages of civilized warfare. They are detained until the 
proper inquiry can be made and the fact ascertained, when a determination will 
be made by the confederate government, whether they come within the obliga¬ 
tions of the cartel as prisoners of war, or are to be dealt with as criminals 
against the laws of war and the State. These men have never been declared 
exchanged. I believe I have given you a better and certainly a more detailed 
reason for their detention than you did with reference to Colonel Morehead and 
other exchanged officers of whom I inquired, and about whom all I could learn 
was that they were confined in Fort Norfolk, under recent orders from the 
Secretary of War. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel William H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Virginia, June 5, 1863. 

Sir: I again ask you, will you deliver the officers and men whom our agree¬ 
ments have declared exchanged? Will you not give me an answer to this in¬ 
quiry? Allow me to quote you, “ I now make a formal demand for them under 
the cartel. If this demand be refused, please frankly state the reason therefor, 
that issues presented may be fully understood and promptly met.” 

You say 1 am mistaken in stating that no federal officers are in our prisons 
who have been declared exchanged. You promise to furnish memoranda. 

You actually refer to one case, that of one Spencer Kellog. I have no recol¬ 
lection of ever having heard of him before. I have already caused inquiry to 
be made, and if he is here he shall be delivered to you. So shall each and 
every other officer or man who has been declared exchanged, if you will say you 
will do the same. I do not care whether there are charges against them or not. 
If you wish to limit this to officers, I will agree to it. I would prefer it should in¬ 
clude the men. Prepare your lists. I have prepared mine. Bring even the 
men whose deliverance I have asked, and who are already exchanged, and you 
shall have, at City Point, every prisoner whom you can name as being con¬ 
fined in our territory. If any one is wanting I will pay you tenfold. Will 
you agree to this ? I have told you often, and repeat it now, that there is no 
reciprocal and fair proposition as to prisoners and exchanges to which I will 
not agree. 

I again say that it is my deliberate conviction that there is not one solitary 
exchanged federal officer now in confinement in the south, unless Dr. Rucker 
is made an exception. I honestly believe that you have now in your prisons, 
or on parole confined to the north, more than two hundred exchanged confed¬ 
erate officers. You must allow me to say that I was amused at the list which 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


15 


you returned me some time ago; I refer to that which purported to be an answer 
to the specific cases I had brought to your attention. More than one-half of the 
cases had “ no record ” appended to them. Such an entry was made in re¬ 
ference to Dr. Greene; the same as to Clagett Fitzhugh, to Parson Clameron, 
to Kerchival, and to a hundred others, who have been seen by scores of people 
within a month or two. Every man on that list; except such as you have al¬ 
ready delivered, is now in some one of your prisons. He may not be in the 
one named; if not, it is because he has been removed in accordance with the 
tactics of your government or its jailers. I ask again, will you deliver our ex¬ 
changed officers and men? 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

R. OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel William H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department , Richmond , Virginia , June 5, 1863. 

Sir : Will you be good enough to inform me when it is to be considered that 
General Order No. 100 went into effect. Is the date of the order April 24, 1863, 
or the date of its communication to me, 23d May, 1863, the true time? Do you 
recognize the rules of General Order No. 100 to be as binding against you as for 
you ? 

Permit me also to call your attention to the flagrant outrages that have re¬ 
cently been perpetrated in Gloucester, Matthews, King and Queen, and the 
adjacent counties. Are they a fair interpretation of your celebrated general 
order ? I am aware it gives a license for a man to be either a friend or a gen¬ 
tleman. He can find abundant authority for either role in the order. What is 
the interpretation iii General Dix’s department ? The country has always es¬ 
teemed him as an honorable gentleman. I enclose a slip, which is inside the 
truth, recounting some of the doings of Colonel Kilpatrick. Does General Dix 
approve of this style of conducting war. even with belligerent rebels ? It is in 
his own department. Perhaps the higher powers may have something to do 
with this question some of these days. “ Silent spectators of the destruction of 
their agricultural implements.” 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

R, OULD, 


Lieut. Colonel William H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Agent of Exchange. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department , Richmond , Virginia , June 12, 1863. 

Sir : I enclose to you the resolution of congress in relation to retaliation. I 
thought you had seen it in the papers transmitted to you, otherwise I would 
have sent it. I take it for granted that the confederate authorities purpose 
to carry out a resolution solemnly passed by them. 1 have not asked them 
whether they intend to do so, and I do not think I will ever be so incon¬ 
siderate as to make any such inquiry. I have thus frankly given my view as 
to this matter; and I beg leave to ask you in return whether it is the purpose 
of your government to execute its conscription act; and further, how many men 




16 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


will be raised under its provisions. I feel so deep a personal interest in that 
subject, that 1 hope I have not transgressed any propriety in propounding the 
inquiry, after the example you have set me. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

R. OULD, 


Lieut. Colonel William H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Agent of Exchange. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Virginia, June 12, 1863. 

Sir : You are mistaken in supposing that my “ proposition to have the re¬ 
leases from paroles and oaths cover other than parties delivered at City Point ” 
was made after I had published notice No. 5. It was made before that date, 
(May 11th,) and after a full and deliberate discussion between us. You hesi¬ 
tated at first; but when I assured you it only extended t<? cases of parties who 
were allowed to leave your territory and come to us, whether by City Point or 
otherwise, you assented to it in distinct and unequivocal terms. The same pro¬ 
vision, in principle, was incorporated in exchange notice No. 4, January 13, 
1863. You recognized the same principle in numerous exchanges made after 
that date, and before May 11, 1863. I have now given the notice in good 
faith. You can stop its application after May 6th, if you choose to do so. 1 
cannot agree that you shall nullify the notice already given; all persons em¬ 
braced in it are entirely free from any obligations made by them. It was so 
distinctly agreed upon between us that there can be no mistake about it. 
Nothing will make me consent that such men shall be put under any ban or dis¬ 
ability, by reason of any action of theirs performed on the faith of this notice. 
You can have your veto as to the future, but not as to the past. If any penal¬ 
ties are visited upon them, it becomes the solemn duty of the confederate gov¬ 
ernment to throw every protection in its power around them. I am sure it will 
do so. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

R. OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel William H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 
Seventh Army Corps, Fort Monroe, June 14, 1863. 

Sir: I assure you that you have not transgressed any propriety in your 
questions as to the purpose of the United States, government to execute its con¬ 
scription act, and- as to the number of men who will be raised under its provi¬ 
sions. I have the honor to inform you, in reply, that the conscription act is now 
being executed, and that a sufficient number of men will be raised under its pro¬ 
visions to bring this war to a speedy and successful conclusion. 

My object in requesting from you a copy of the act of the confederate con¬ 
gress, and information as to intentions to execute it, was to know officially what 
disposition under the act was proposed to be made of officers and men captured 
in arms, and who had been duly mustered into the service of the United States, 
and also that the issues thereby presented could be fully understood and 
promptly met. 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


17 


Sections 4, 5, 6 and 7 of this act propose a gross and inexcusable breach of 
the cartel, both in letter and spirit. Upon reference to the cartel, you will find 
no mention whatever of what was to be the color of prisoners of war. It was 
unnecessary to make any such mention, for, before the establishment of this 
oartel, and before one single negro or mulatto was mustered into the United 
States service, you had them organized in arms in Louisiana. You had Indians, 
and half-breed negroes and Indians, organized in arms under Albert Pike, in 
Arkansas. Subsequently, negroes were captured on the battle-field at Antie- 
tam, and delivered as prisoners of war at Aiken’s Landing, to the confederate 
authorities, and receipted for and counted in exchange. And, more recently, 
the confederate legislature of Tennessee have passed an act forcing into their 
military service (I quote literally) all male free persons of color, between the 
ages of fifteen and fifty, or such number as may be necessary, who may be 
sound in body and capable of actual service; and they further enacted, that in 
the event a sufficient number of free persons of color to meet the wants of the 
State shall not tender their services, then the governor is empowered, through 
the sheriffs of different counties, to impress such persons, until the required 
number is obtained. 

But it is needless to argue the question. You have not a foot of ground to 
stand upon in making the proposed discrimination among our captured officers 
and men. I protest against it as a violation of the cartel, of the laws and 
usages of war, and of your own practices under them. 

Passing events will clearly show the impracticability in executing the act 
referred to. In case, however, the attempt be made to execute it, I now give 
you formal notice that the United States government will throw its protection 
around all its officers and men, without regard to color, and will promptly 
retaliate for all cases violating the cartel, or the laws and usages of war. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

1th Army Corps, Fort Monroe, June 14, 1863. 
Sir: GeneralOrder No. 100 is considered as having gone into effect from the 
date of its communication to you, on the 23d of May last, and is, of course, 
mutually binding. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 
Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Virginia, June 19, 1863. 
Sir : On the 5th day of June, 1863, I requested you to inform me when 
General Order No. 100 was considered as going into effect. To that you have 
returned no answer. Its date is April 24, 1863. You delivered it to me on 
the 23d of May, 1863. 

I perceive by a General Order No. 15, March 9, 1863, issued by General 
Ex. Doc. 17-2 






18 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Schenck, that all officers and men who had been captured in his department, 
and particularly exchanged, should return to duty and service, on penalty of 
being considered deserters. When you delivered General Order No. 100 to me, 
I inquired of you as to the date when it went into effect. I understood yon to 
say the date of its delivery. You may, therefore, well imagine my surprise 
when 1 perceive that, by the General Order of one of your own departmental 
commanders, the new provisions as to paroles are not only to have effect from 
and after March 9, 1863, but are made to apply to all cases previous to that 
date, without any limitation as to time. This is not only contrary to your own 
declarations to me, but to our common practice up to May 23, 1863. You have 
charged against me and received credit for several captures made by General 
Stoneman’s command, in his recent raid. Is it pretended that you are to have 
credit for captures made by your commands, while none is to be given to us, 
precisely under the same circumstances? Is this fair, or just, or right? 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut Colonel William H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Virginia , July 1, 1863. 

Sir : The clear understanding between us as to civilians was that all who bad 
been paroled, or put under any bonds, or who had taken any oath of allegiance, 
were released from condition of parole, bond and oath, where such civilians 
were delivered to their own people. It was confined to such as were released 
and delivered. Such is the fair and proper interpretation of paragraph 8 of 
notice 5. It would, perhaps, have been better for me to have added the word 
“delivered” after “released.” I did not do so because persons who were sent 
into our lines might not consider themselves as being delivered. I have, how¬ 
ever, assured all persons that it only embraces such persons as were delivered 
to me or my agents, or such as were sent into our lines. If you continue to 
take exception to the phraseology, I will correct it in my next notice. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel William H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

1th Army Corps, Fort Monroe, July 7, 1863. 

Sir : I herewith enclose to you a copy of General Order No. 207, which con¬ 
tains some additional provisions to those mentioned in my communication to you 
of the 22d May last. It is understood that officers of the United States and 
confederate officers have, at various times and places, paroled and released pris¬ 
oners of war, not in accordance with the cartel. 

The government of the United States will not recognize and will not expect 
the confederate authorities to recognize such unauthorized paroles. Prisoners 
released on parole not authorized by the cartel, after my notice to you of the 
22d of May, will not be regarded as prisoners of war and will not be exchanged. 




EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


19 


When prisoners of war have been released, without the delivery specified in 
the cartel, since the 22d May last, such release will be regarded as unconditional, 
and the prisoners released as subject to orders without exchange, the same as if 
they had never been captured. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

1th Army Corps , Fort Monroe , July 14, 1863. 

Sir : I decline to unite with you in your declaration of the exchange of the 
officers named by you in your communication of the 13th instant just received, 
and who form a part of those captured at Vicksburg. 

In violation of the cartel you now hold in close confinement many of our offi¬ 
cers, though their release was long ago demanded and their equivalents tendered 
to you. You even permitted these equivalents to be sent back to Fort Monroe, 
from City Point. In this position of affairs, and being in entire ignorance of 
what you propose to do with our officers now in your hands, I must decline any 
special arrangements until we meet. This meeting, with your consent, will take 
place as soon as I shall have received the poroles of the Vicksburg captures. 
Please, therefore, notify the officers named by you, that their exchange cannot 
be recognized by our authorities until the declarations be united in by me. 

In making arrangements with you for exchanges of paroles of officers, I shall 
expect to exhaust equivalents of equal rank before we take up those of higher 
rank. 

To settle all difficulties connected with exchanges of officers, I again invite 
you to a return to the cartel; and if you refuse, I again ask you, why such re¬ 
fusal ? 

I am, very respecfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

P. S.—The declaration of exchange made by you on the 2d instant leaves 
you in debt to me between eight and nine hundred men. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

1th Army Corps , Fort Monroe , Jtily 15,1863. 

Sir : In the letter of July 8, of the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens to Hon. 
Jefferson Davis, giving a report of his mission, appears the following statement: 
The reasons assigned for the refusal by the United States Secretary of War, to 
wit, that “ the customary agents and channels are considered adequate for all 
needful military communications and conferences,” to one acquainted with the 
facts, seem not only unsatisfactory, but very singular and unaccountable; for 
it is certainly known tohim that these very agents, to whom he evidently alludes, 
heretofore agreed upon in a formal conference in reference to the exchange of 
prisoners, (one of the subjects embraced in your letter to me,) are now, and have 
been for some time, distinctly at issue on several important points. 




20 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


The existing cartel, owing to these disagreements, is virtually suspended so 
far as the exchange of officers on either side is concerned. 

As in this statement Mr. Stephens appears to be unacquainted with the facts, 
may I ask if you will inform him that exchanges of prisoners of war, and the 
settlement of the intricate and troublesome questions connected therewith, were 
being proceeded with successfully by us until the issue of the proclamation of 
the Hon. Jefferson Davis on the 23d of December last, which, in gross violation 
of the cartel, reserved for execution certain of our captured officers and men. 
Will you also please inform Mr. Stephens that, in your and my anxious desire 
to alleviate the horrors of war, the proclamation after a little delay was ignored, 
and exchanges of officers were resumed. That the exchanges were again inter¬ 
rupted in May last by the operation of an act of the confederate congress, which 
was another gross violation of the cartel and the laws and usages of war, and 
which consigned to execution and other punishments certain of our captured 
officers and men. Will you please furnish Mr. Stephens with a copy of my 
communication to you and protest of the 14th of June last on this subject, and also 
inform him that, under that act of the confederate congress, your authorities 
now retain in close confinement large numbers of our officers, though their re¬ 
lease has been demanded and equivalents in your officers tendered, which equiv¬ 
alents have been sent back to Fort Monroe from City Point. Please also in¬ 
form him that I have again and again invited your authorities to a return to the 
cartel in exchanges of officers, and that such invitation has not been responded to. 

I cannot but believe that, with a statement of these plain facts so well 
known to you and me, Mr. Stephens will readily see that your authorities are 
alone at fault, and that he will, in the humane spirit with which he entered on 
his mission, earnestly recommend the ignoring or repeal of the act of your con¬ 
gress, which is such a clear violation of the cartel, and the fruitful, I may say 
only source of the practical difficulties now surrounding the exchange of officers. 

I have indulged the hope that the magnanimous treatment of your officers 
captured at Vicksburg and their release upon parole would have prompted the 
immediate release on parole of all our officers held by you. That hope I have 
not abandoned. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department , Richmond , Virginia , July 17,1863. 

Sir : In my communication to you of the 13th instant, declining the exchange 
of certain officers who had been captured and paroled at Vicksburg, I only did 
what you yourself have frequently done. On at least one occasion you went further 
than I presumed to go. You declared your men exchanged, when you had no 
equivalents to offer. You say, in your letter of the 14th instant, that you decline 
to unite with me in my declaration, and request me to notify the officers that 
their exchange cannot be recognized. I call your attention to the otli article of 
the cartel, which provides that “ each party, upon the discharge of prisoners of 
the other party, is authorized to discharge an equal number of their own officers 
or men from parole.” I have exercised a clear right under the cartel—one that 
you have exercised over again and again. I have already delivered to you the 
equivalents of these officers, which equivalents you may declare exchanged. 

My right to declare these officers exchanged does not depend upon your assent. 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


21 


After I have given you equivalents their exchange is perfected by my declara¬ 
tion, whether you decline to unite with me or not. I shall not, therefore, give 
the notice which you request. 

The officers referred to are already rightfully and properly exchanged. The 
right to declare officers and men exchanged, where equivalents have been deliv¬ 
ered, is one that I cannot yield, and I am unwilling to bind myself by an agree¬ 
ment not to exercise that right “until we meet.” 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Lieut. Colonel Wm. H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


New York, July 22, 1863. 

Srn : Your communication of the 15th instant has been forwarded to me here. 

There is no authority in the cartel for your proposed declaration of exchange 
of your officers captured at Vicksburg, in the manner you indicate. 

The cartel provides for exchange of equal rank until such are exhausted, and 
then for equivalents. In consequence of the very much larger number of your 
officers and men we hold on parole and in confinement, you can give no equiva¬ 
lents for the general officers you desire to have exchanged. You cannot for a 
moment assume that you can select a general officer and declare his equivalents 
in those of inferior rank, when we hold the paroles of your officers of the same 
rank as the latter. But even supposing this arrangement was permitted by the 
cartel, I do not see how you could avail yourself of it at this time. 

You will recollect that since the proclamation of the Hon. Jefferson Davis of 
December last, and more especially since the passage of the act of the confederate 
congress in reference to our captured officers, both of which were in violation 
of the cartel, and have caused in the one case a temporary, and in the other a 
continued suspension of exchanges of officers, all such exchanges have been 
subjects of special agreement between us. 

To avoid the complications and annoyances of these special agreements, I 
have again and again urged you to a return of the cartel, but up to the present 
moment in vain. On the contrary, you retain in close confinement large num¬ 
bers of our officers, for whom I have made a demand and tendered equivalents. 

Until you consent to return to the terms prescribed by the cartel for exchange 
of officers, I shall not consent to any exchanges of them, except on special 
agreements. I repeat to you that I decline to unite in your proposed declara¬ 
tion of exchange of officers captured at Vicksburg; and if recaptured, they will 
be dealt with as violators of their paroles. Ought you not, in justice to these 
officers, to notify them of the exact condition of their cases, and thus enable 
them to avoid being placed in false positions ? 

If you are authorized to deliver our officers now held in close confinement, 
and to a return to the cartel in exchanges of all officers and men, all the com¬ 
plicated questions which have arisen within the last few months can be promptly 
disposed of. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 



22 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Va., July 26, 1863. 

Sir : Your communication of the 22d contests my declaration of exchanges of 
officers made on the 17th instant. You say “ the cartel provides for the ex¬ 
change of equal ranks until such are exhausted, and then for equivalents.” If 
you had been at Fortress Monroe, where you could have seen the cartel, instead 
of New York, from which your letter is dated, you would have written no such 
paragraph. There is nothing in the cartel which contains any such doctrine, or 
which favors it. Every provision is against it. Your own and my practice has 
been opposed to it. I again say to you what I have already stated in my com¬ 
munication of the 17th instant, that your assent is not needed to the declared 
exchange, and I shall not notify the officers whom I have declared exchanged, 
as you request. I have allowed you to declare exchanges when the number of 
prisoners in our hands has been the greater. This has been the case from the 
day when we first met, in the fall of last year, to the capture at Vicksburg. 
Now, when you have scarcely received official advices of your superiority in 
prisoners, you boast of the fact, and declare that I fcannot give an equivalent for 
the general officers I have declared exchanged. The point you make is worth 
nothing, even as you have stated it. You know we have no lieutenant generals 
or major generals of yours in our hands. For that reason I have declared them 
exchanged in privates or inferior officers, at your election. I had the right, under 
the cartel, to make the choice myself; but I preferred that you should do it, and, 
therefore, I gave you the notification which I did. If, at any time, you present 
officers for exchange who have been paroled, and we have no officers of similar 
rank on parole, you can declare their exchanges in privates. If, at this time, 
you have any officers of the rank I have declared exchanged, or of any other 
rank, or if you have any particular organization of privates or non-commissioned 
officers whom you wish exchanged, you have only to state such fact and your 
selection will be approved. If you hold the paroles of our officers of any rank, 
as you state, you have only to present them, and whatever is in our hands, 
whether on parole or in captivity, will be freely given in exchange for them. 
You say you have again and again invited me to a return to the cartel. Now 
that our official connexion is being terminated, I say to you in the fear of God, 
and I appeal to Him for the truth of the declaration, that there has been no 
single moment, from the time when we were first brought together in connexion 
with the matter of exchange to the present hour, during which . there has not 
been an open and notorious violation of the cartel by your authorities. Officers 
and men, numbering over hundreds, have been, during your whole connexion 
with the cartel, kept in cruel confinement, sometimes in irons or doomed cells, 
without charges or trial. They are in prison now, without God in His mercy 
has released them. In our parting moments, let me do you the justice to say 
that I do not believe it is so much your fault as that of your authorities. Nay 
more; I believe your removal from your position has been owing to the personal 
efforts you have made for a faithful observance, not only of the cartel, but of 
humanity in the conduct of the war. 

Again and again have I importuned you to tell me of one officer or man now 
held in confinement by us who was declared exchanged. You have to those 
appeals furnished one, Spencer Kellog. For him I have searched in vain. On 
the other hand, I appeal to your own records for the cases where your reports 
have shown that our officers and men have been held for long months, and even 
years, in violation of the cartel and our agreements. The last phase of the 
enormity, however, exceeds all others. Although you have many thousands of 
our soldiers now in confinement in your prisons, and especially in that horrible 
hold of death, Fort Delaware, you have not for several weeks sent us any pris¬ 
oners. During those weeks you have despatched Captain Mulford with the 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


23 


steamer New York, to City Point three or four times without any prisoners. 
For the first two or three times some sort of an excuse was attempted. None 
is given at this present arrival. I do not mean to he offensive when I say that 
effrontery could not give one. I ask you with no purpose of disrespect, what 
can you think of this covert attempt to secure the delivery of all your prisoners 
in our hands, without the release of those of ours, who were languishing in hope¬ 
less misery in your prisons and dungeons ? 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Colonel W. H. Ludlow, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Virginia , August 1 , 1863. 

Sir : In the “Army and Navy Official Gazette,” of the date of July 14, 1863, 
I find a letter of Lieutenant Colonel William H. Ludlow, of the date of July 
7, 1863, addressed to Colonel J. C. Kelton. In it is the following paragraph, 
to wit: 

“I have the honor also to state that since the 22d of May last, it has been 
distinctly understood between Mr. Ould and myself that all captures must be 
reduced to possession, and that all paroles are to be disregarded, unless taken 
under the special arrangement of commanding officers of armies in the field, as 
prescribed in section 7 of the cartel.” 

If Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow means that he had declared to me that such 
was the rule which had been adopted by the United States in relation to cap¬ 
tures and paroles, to go into effect from and after May 23, 1863, he is entirely 
right. If he means that I at any time consented to adopt or acquiesce in any 
such rule, he is entirely wrong. All that passed between us on that subject is 
in writing. The correspondence will interpret itself. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 


Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Agent of Exchange. 


Office of Commission for Exchange, 

Fort Monroe, Virginia, August 7, 1863. 

General : I have the honor to inform you that by to-day’s boat I have re¬ 
ceived a most earnest and pressing request from Mr. Ould to grant him a meet¬ 
ing as early as possible. I have not yet sought an interview with him, for the 
reason that Colonel Ludlow has been quite reticent in regard to matters con¬ 
nected with his late business, nor did I wish to see Mr. Ould until I had some 
specific instructions from the War Department. 

From what I can gather in Colonel Ludlow’s letter-books, I suppose the fol¬ 
lowing are points to be insisted upon: 

1st. The immediate exchange of Colonel Streight and his command. 

2d. An agreement that Dr. Green shall be held by the United States gov¬ 
ernment as a hostage for Dr. Rucker; other surgeons to be exchanged. 

3d. That all officers commanding negro troops, and negro troops themselves, 
shall be treated as other prisoners of war, and exchanged in the same way. I 




24 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


feel constrained, however, for reasons stated above, to ask for full instructions 
as soon as possible. You may rest assured that I shall enter into no unauthor¬ 
ized agreement with Mr. Ould, nor shall I discuss with him any point on which 
I am not fully instructed. I have the honor, also, to forward you the enclosed 
from Mr. Ould, upon which I should like to have your views before seeing him. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchange. 

Major General E. A. Hitchcock, 

Washington, D. C. 


Washington City, D. C., 

August 13, 1863. 

Sir : In answer to your communication of the 7th instaut, covering the letter 
of Mr. Ould, of the 5th instant, I have to enclose for your guidance a memo¬ 
randum from Major General Halleck, approved by the Secretary of War, con¬ 
taining the decision upon the letter referred to, upon which you can confer with 
Mr. Ould upon your next interview with him, presenting the proposition as a 
definite one, without argument on your part. 

Should the proposal be accepted with authority, you will only need to make 
the declaration it contemplates. If it should not be accepted, you will please 
merely transmit any observations which Mr. Ould may desire to present, for 
such action as may be determined upon at general headquarters. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General of Volunteers , 
Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners. 

General S. A. Meredith, Sfc. 


Headquarters of the Army, 

Washington, August 12, 1863. 

Robert Ould, agent of exchange of prisoners, in his letter of August 5, to 
Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, claims that the prisoners captured and pa¬ 
roled by the enemy’s forces in Maryland and elsewhere, prior to the 3d of July, 
should either be regarded as legally paroled or returned to the enemy as pris¬ 
oners of war. 

It will be observed that General Order No. 100, current series, simply an¬ 
nounces general principles, which apply only in the absence of special agree¬ 
ments. So far from changing in any way the cartel, Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow 
notified Mr. Ould, at the time of giving him this order, that our government 
would regard no parole as binding which was not given in conformity with the 
provisions of the cartel. 

This was not only fully understood at the time, but, it is alleged and be¬ 
lieved, has been carried out by the enemy whenever it suited his convenience. 
It is understood that rebel prisoners illegally paroled by our officers have been 
returned to the ranks without exchange. 

In regard to the prisoners paroled in Maryland and Pennsylvania by General 
Lee and his officers, it is stated by General Meade that General Lee requested 
him to appoint a place of exchange in accordance with the provisions of the 
cartel, and that he (General Meade) declined the proposition. 

Nevertheless, in order to disembarrass himself from the care of these pris¬ 
oners General Lee proceeded to parole them. General Lee’s officers in re- 





EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


25 


ceiving these paroles, and our officers and men in giving them, knew or ought 
to have known that they were utterly null and void. And now, after having 
released our men on illegal paroles, in order to avoid guarding and feeding 
them, when his army Avas hard pressed and retreating before General Meade, 
General Lee, or rather his agent, Mr. Ould, insists that the United States gov¬ 
ernment shall either respect these illegal paroles, or deliver the persons so pa¬ 
roled to the confederate authorities at City Point. 

This is certainly a most extraordinary demand, and cannot be acceded to. In 
order, however, to avoid any difficulty on this point. General Meredith will be 
authorized to agree with Mr. Ould, that all paroles given by officers and men 
on either side, between the 23d of May and the 3d of July, not in conformity 
with the stipulations of the cartel, be regarded as null and void, a declaration 
to that effect being published to the armies of both belligerents. 

The other three points mentioned in General Meredith’s letter of the 7th in¬ 
stant seem to be fully understood by him. The government of the United 
States will, under no circumstances, yield either of these points. 

The foregoing memorandum has been examined and approved by the Secre¬ 
tary of War. 

H. W. HALLECK, 

Gcncral-in- Chief,\ 

Major General Hitchcock. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

Fortress Monroe, August 26, 1863. 

Sir : Your communication of the 20th instant, in answer to mine of the 19th, 
in relation to Mr. Daniel Gerhart, is received. No case is known of the de¬ 
tention in the north of a non-combatant, which assimilates to that of Mr. Ger¬ 
hart in the south. In all cases of the arrest of non-combatants, it has been 
upon some special causes making it necessary and proper. If there was a 
disposition north to arrest citizens of the *south, merely as such, the positions 
of the United States forces would show every one that such arrests could be 
made almost without limit. If you will state a case parallel to that of Mr. 
Gerhart, I will refer it at once to the proper authority, and it will no doubt be 
considered Avith every disposition to afford relief. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Agent of Exchange. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Va. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Virgmia, September 7, 1863. 

Sir: I confess my great astonishment in not receiving one word from you 
in reference to the very grave and important matters Avhieli were the subjects 
of discussion betAveen us in our interview at City Point. That interview took 
place two weeks ago. You stated that you Avere not prepared to accept or re¬ 
ject the proposition Avliich I then made, but that you Avould immediately in¬ 
form your government of its nature, and give me a speedy answer in person or 
by letter. Though two boats have been despatched from Fortress Monroe to 
City Poiut, and two Aveeks have elapsed since our meeting, no reference or allu¬ 
sion to the subjects of controversy has been made by you. At our interview 




26 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


you told me, in answer to my urgent request, that there should he no delay— 
that not more than a week would elapse before you would be prepared with 
your answer. Under these circumstances, if you were not ready, every con¬ 
sideration would seem to demand that some excuse should be furnished or the 
delay explained. As, however, you do not refer to the matter at all, I am left 
only to draw the conclusion that you do not intend to give an answer to my 
proposition. I therefore inform you that the confederate authorities will con¬ 
sider themselves entirely at liberty to pursue any course with reference to my 
written proposition to you which they may deem right and proper under all 
the circumstances of the case. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Brig. General S. A. Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 


[Exchange Notice No. 6.] 

Richmond, September 12, 1863. 

The following confederate officers and men, captured at Vicksburg, Missis¬ 
sippi, July 4, 1863, and subsequently paroled, have been duly exchanged, and 
are hereby so declared: 

1. The officers and men of General 0. L. Stevenson’s division. 

2. The officers and men of General Bowen’s division. 

3. The officers and men of Brigadier General Moore’s brigade. 

4. The officers and men of the 2d Texas regiment. 

5. The officers and men of Waul’s legion. 

6. Also all confederate officers and men who have been delivered at City 
Point at any time previous to July 25, 1863, have been duly exchanged, and 
are hereby so declared. 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, 

Fort Monroe , Virginia , September 14, 1863. 

Sir: In your letter of September 7, declining to exchange General Graham 
for General Smith, you state “ that I appear to be laboring under some strong 
mistake; that General Smith has already been exchanged, and that I have re¬ 
ceived the equivalent.” On July 14, 1863, my predecessor, Lieutenant Colonel 
Ludlow, wrote to you, positively declining to unite with you in your declaration 
of exchange of July 13, and requesting you to notify the officers therein named 
that their exchange would not be recognized by the authorities of the United 
States. May I ask who was the equivalent delivered for General Smith? I 
now repeat to you the notification of Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, and state that 
the authorities of the United States will not recognize the exchange of the above 
officers until united in by me. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH. 

Brig. Ge?i., Com’r for Exchange. 


Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent of Exchange. 




EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


27 


Confederate States of America, 

War DepartmentRichmond , Virginia, September 14, 1S63. 

Sir : In your letter of the 14tli instant you inquired ” who was the equivalaet 
delivered for General Smith.” If you will refer to my letters of the 13th and 17th 
of July you will find out the equivalent. It had been our practice, whenever a 
special exchange was declared by one party, to allow the other to select the 
equivalent from prisoners already paroled or delivered. I pursued that course 
in the case of the Vicksburg general officers. The equivalent could be found in 
officers and men paroled at Fredericksburg, in pursuance of an agreement between 
Generals Lee and Hooker. If that was not satisfactory, the equivalent could 
easily be found in the ten thousand prisoners whom I had released from captivity 
and sent to City Point. In that ten thousand there was an excess of more than 
six thousand at least over the number you had delivered at the same place since 
the last general declaration of exchange. My letter of the 17tli of July, contains 
a fair statement not only of the practice of the agents of exchange, but of the 
grounds of my authority to declare the exchange of the Vicksburg general offi¬ 
cers, including General M. L. Smith. The efforts to cast discredit upon the reg¬ 
ular and honorable exchange of these officers is, to use a phrase of your own in 
one of your letters of the 14th instant,“ simply ridiculous. ” 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Brig. General S. A. Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Washington City, D. C., September 18, 1863. 

Sir : Your communication of the 14th instant to Colonel Hoffman, enclosing 
the letter of Mr. Ould of the 11th, is before me. 

For the purpose of guarding against a misunderstanding, and an erroneous 
principle of action on the subject of declaring exchanges, you will inform Mr. 
Ould that the ex parte declaration of exchange, proposed in his communication 
to be made the next day, (following the date of that communication,) is deemed 
to be not only without authority from the cartel, but contrary to the usages of 
war. 

The 5th article of the cartel (General Orders No. 142,1862) would have author¬ 
ized Mr. Ould to discharge prisoners of the federal forces, furnishing a list of them, 
and then to discharge an equal number of his own officers and men from 
parole. The cartel not only contemplates a mutual exchange of lists, (article 
5,) but expressly declares (article 4) that no exchange is to be considered com¬ 
plete until the officer or soldier exchanged for has been actually restored to the 
lines to which he belongs. 

In order to complete the arrangement declared by Mr. Ould, it will be neces¬ 
sary for you to make a declaration of exchange of as many of our officers and 
men as have been delivered at City Point since the last declaration, provided 
the number does not exceed the number designated in Mr. Ould’s declaration. 

Then you can proceed further, and arrange with Mr. Ould for the discharge 
from parole of any excess which can be balanced either way by officers or sol¬ 
diers actually on parole. Prisoners of war actually in our hands are not to be 
exchanged at the present time. You will please be careful not to jeopard 
this point. You can receive any officers or soldiers whom Mr. Ould may offer 
at City Point, and arrange with him for a mutual declaration of exchange for 
those of his officers and men already on parole in the south, grade for grade. 

Colonel Hoffman’s letter, of the 5th ultimo will give you some suggestions 



28 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


about exchanges, but it will be necessary for you to be exceedingly guarded 
in framing your declaration to confine its application to rebel prisoners already 
paroled, and on no account, by any accident, to use language which can give 
the south a claim upon prisoners now in our actual possession; not but that 
these will be used for exchange at the proper time, but not while the north has, 
already delivered and on parole, more than enough to cover all deliveries made 
or to be made by the south. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General Volunteers , Commissioner of Exchange. 
General S. A. Meredith, 

Commissioner for Exchanges. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

Fortress Monroe , August 25, 1863. 

General : I have just returned from a meeting with the rebel agent of 
exchange at City Point, and I have the honor to report to you that, in reply to 
his letter to me, dated August 5, 1863, wherein he claims “ that the prisoners 
captured and paroled by the rebel forces in Maryland and elsewhere prior to 
the third of July should either be regarded as legally paroled, or returned as 
prisoners of war,” I made the following proposition, as directed in the letter of 
the general-in-chief to you of August 12, 1863 : 

“ City Point, Virginia, August 24, 1863. 

“ I propose, on behalf of the government of the United States, that all 
paroles given by officers and men between the 23d day of May, 1863, and the 
3d day of July, 1863, not in conformity with the stipulations of the cartel, shall 
be regarded as null and void, a declaration to this effect to be published to both 
armies. 

“ S. A. MEREDITH, 

“ Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchanges .” 

This was declined, and the following was offered by Mr. Ould : 

“ City Point, August 24, 1864. 

“ I propose that all paroles on both sides heretofore given shall be determined 
by the General Orders issued by the War Department of the United States, to 
wit, No. 49, No. 100, and No. 207 of this year, according to their respective 
dates, and in conformity with paragraph 131 of General Order No. 100, so long 
as said paragraph was in force. If this proposition is not acceptable, I propose 
that the practice heretofore adopted, respecting paroles and exchanges, be con¬ 
tinued. In other words, I propose that the whole question of paroles be de¬ 
termined by the General Orders of the United States, according to their dates, 
or that it be decided by former practice. 

“ROBERT OULD, 

“ Agent of Exchange .” 

In reply to my demand for the release of Colonel Streight and his command, 
I was informed that they were in Richmond held as other prisoners of war, and 
will be exchanged when exchanges of officers are resumed. In relation to Dr. 
Rucker, Mr. Ould referred me to his letter of August 16, which I have the 
honor to forward herewith. 

To my demand “ that all officers commanding negro troops, and negro troops 
themselves, should be treated as other prisoners of war, and be exchanged a 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


29 


such,” Mr. Ould declined acceding, remarking that they (the rebels) would 
die in the last ditch ” before giving up the right to send slaves back to slavery 
as property recaptured ; but that they were willing to make exceptions in the 
case of free blacks. He could not exactly tell me how his authorities intended 
to distinguish between the two, (free and slave,) but presumed that evidence as to 
the fact of freedom would be taken into consideration. As their laws put slave 
and free upon the same footing, no comment is necessary. 

An informal proposition was made to the following effect: “To exchange 
officer for officer of the same grade, except such as are in command of negro 
troops,” which was declined. 

Mr. Ould expresses a willingness to release all chaplains, provided that one 
Septimus Cameron, who, he stated, had been in prison for a year, should be re¬ 
leased, or indicted for any offence he may have committed. On my inquiring 
about and urging the release of the members of the sanitary commission, I 
was informed that they would be set free on making a statement in writing that 
they had, at any time, been of assistance to rebel soldiers. General Neal Dow 
lias been handed over to the governor of Alabama; Lieutenant Colonel Pow ell is 
in Libby prison, Richmond. I have notified the rebel authorities in relation to 
the two above-named officers, as directed in yours of the IStli ultimo. 

The rebel authorities wish to continue exchanging non-commissioned officers 
and privates as usual, returning as many as we send. 

I have given you, I believe, the substance of all that took place, according to 
your suggestion. I avoided much discussion. No agreement as to exchanges 
was arrived at. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchange. 

Major General E. A. Hitchcock, 

Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners, Washington City , D. C. 


Washington City, D. C , 

Sejrtember 21, 1863. 

The communication of the 3d instant from his excellency the governor of 
Connecticut, on the subject of the crew of the bark Texana, having been 
returned with an indorsement from Mr. Ould, proposing to discharge said crew 
“ on the release of those similarly situated in federal prisons,” you are requested 
to say to Mr. Ould that I do not know nor can I hear of any prisoners held by 
us under circumstances corresponding to those of the Texana held in the 
south. If Mr. Ould will refer specifically to any such prisoners in our hands, 
they shall be released—it being understood that the cases shall be similar. 

The communication from Mr. Ould of the 1st of August, referred to in the 
indorsement as unanswered, was handed to the Secretary of War on its receipt, 
who does not think proper to enter into such broad general agreements as pro¬ 
posed, implying so settled a state of things as does not in fact exist. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General Volunteers , Commissioner 

for Exchange of Prisoners . 

General S. A. Meredith, 

Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners. 



30 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

Fort Monroe, September 23, 1863. 

Sir : I have the honor to report to you herewith the result of my interview 
with the rebel agent of exchange. I called his attention to the fact that his dec¬ 
laration of exchange of the 12th instant was not in accordance with the terms 
of the cartel; he acknowledged it to be the case, but stated that such had been 
the practice heretofore between Lieut. Ool. Ludlow and himself, and that when 
one agent declared a special exchange, the other was allowed to select the equiv¬ 
alents ; this he expressed a desire that I should do. I expressed my readiness 
to complete the arrangement which he had “ declared,” but this could not be 
consummated, in consequence of the rebel agent’s claiming as valid the paroles 
at Gettysburg and elsewhere, amounting to some 4,800. 

Mr. Ould made the following proposition : “ That all officers and men on 

both sides be released, unless there be actual charges against them. If officers 
or men are held on charges which their government consider unjust, let one or 
more hostages be held for such. If there be charges against officers and men, 
and they are not tried on the same within a reasonable time, (to be agreed upon,) 
they are to be discharged. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant. 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchange. 

Major General E. A. Hitchcock, 

Commissioner for Exchanges, Washington, D. C. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

Fort Monroe, September 24, 1863. 

Sir : To meet your declaration of exchange of the 12tli instant, I inform 
you that I have this day announced the following: 

“ A declaration of exchange having been announced by R. Ould, esq., agent 
for exchange, at Richmond, Virginia, dated September 12, 1863, to meet the 
same, in part, as equivalents, it is hereby declared that all officers and men of 
the United States army captured and paroled at any time previous to the 1st 
September, 1863, are duly exchanged.” 

The number of officers covered by the first five sections of 


your declaration is. 1,208 

The number of enlisted men is. 14, 865 

The number of officers covered by 6th section is. 72 


The number of enlisted men is. 8, 014 

Making a total of officers.... 1, 280 


And total of enlisted men. 22, 879 


Aggregate. 24, 159 

Reduced to enlisted men. 29, 433 

Of the federal troops on parole, there are officers. 76 

Enlisted men. 19, 083 


Aggregate. 19,159 

Reduced to enlisted men. 19, 409 


Which gives a balance in our favor of. 10, 024 























EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


31 


I now claim this balance which is due us, and I demand that you return to 
their paroles all officers and men for whom you have paroled no equivalents, or 
that you release an equal number from the prisons in Richmond. 

Your declaration was wholly unwarranted under the cartel, and it might, with 
great propriety, be set aside. In it you failed to announce to me the 6th sec¬ 
tion, as published in the Richmond Enquirer of the 10th instant, which covers 
72 officers, and 8,014 enlisted men. You did not, according to the terms of the 
cartel, furnish me with any “ list,” or even give me the number of men, by which 
I could declare equivalents, nor did you give me any time to prepare my an¬ 
nouncement. I here deem it incumbent upon me to state that I consider your 
course in this matter a deliberate breach of good faith on the part of the author¬ 
ities under whom you act. The 5th article of the cartel (General Orders No. 
142, 1862) would have authorized you to discharge prisoners of the federal 
forces, furnishing a “list” of them, and then you could have discharged an 
equal number of your own officers and men “from parole.” The cartel not 
only contemplates a “mutual” exchange of “lists,” (article 5,) but expressly 
declares (article 4) that no exchange is to be considered complete, until the 
officer or soldier exchanged for has been actually restored to the lines to which 
he belongs. 

As to the paroles given at Gettysburg and elsewhere, you made an agree¬ 
ment with my predecessor, Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, to take effect from May 
22, 1863, that all paroles given, not in accordance with the cartel, should be 
considered null and void. How, then, can you claim as valid the Gettysburg 
paroles ? 

If you have any rolls or lists of any men whom you may have paroled that 
I have not given you credit for, or if there should be any errors in my account, 
I will be happy to rectify the same. 

You declared exchanged, before my predecessor was relieved, certain officers 
captured at Vicksburg, in which declaration he refused to unite. There are 
but two officers, I believe, (Generals Stevenson and Bowen,) who are covered 
by your declaration of the 12th instant. If the other officers named have not 
been returned to their paroles, as requested by Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, you 
are indebted to us for their equivalents. The chief ground of the objection to 
that declaration is, that at 'that time there were no equivalents of the same 
grade in our possession, (the only condition which would have warranted your 
making the declaration,) and if we consented to it, we would be obliged to offset 
them by officers of inferior rank. 

In making up the number of federal troops to be exchanged, I have included 
all those mustered out of the service, all discharged, deserted and deceased. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchange. 

Hon. R. Ould, 

Agent of Exchange , Richmond , Virginia. 


Washington City, D. C., September 26, 1863. 

Sir: The proposition submitted as from Mr. Ould, in your letter of the 22d 
instant, “ that all officers and men on both sides be released, unless there be ac¬ 
tual charges against them,” &c., is not accepted. The effort to make a distinc¬ 
tion between officers serving with different species of troops can receive no coun¬ 
tenance whatever. 



32 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


The existing cartel is sufficient to meet all the demands of the laws of war. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General of Volunteers , fyc. 

General S. A. Meredith, 

Commissioner for the Exchange of Prisoners. 


Richmond, October 2, 1863. 

Sir: Your communication of the 24th ultimo, declaring that “all officers and 
men of the United States army captured and paroled at any time previous to 
the 1st of September, 1863, are duly exchanged,” has been received. 

You are aware that when I met you, on the 24tli of August last, at City Point, 
I made to you the following proposal, to wit: “I propose that all paroles on 
both sides heretofore given shall be determined by the General Orders issued by 
the War Department of the United States, to wit, No. 49, No. 100, and No. 
207, of this year, according to their respective dates, and in conformity with 
paragraph 131 of General Order No. 100, so long as said paragraph was in force. 
If this proposition is not acceptable, I propose that the practice heretofore 
adopted respecting paroles and exchanges be continued. In other words, I pro¬ 
pose that the whole question of paroles be determined by the General Orders of 
the United States, according to dates, or that it be decided by former practice.” 
You have neither accepted nor declined either branch of that proposal, although 
I have, both in personal interview and by letter, solicited you to do one or the 
other. On the same day you submitted to me your proposition, which, unlike 
mine, was prepared beforehand, and which is as follows: “I propose, an be¬ 
half of the government of the United States, that all paroles given by officers 
and men between the 23d day of May, 1863, and the 3d day of July, 1863, 
not in conformity with the stipulations of the cartel, shall be regarded as null 
and void. A declaration to this effect to be published to both armies.” That 
proposition I immediately declined. I then and there gave you my reasons. 
In the first place, I informed you that the confederate authorities had never at 
any time, and did not then, ask that paroles “not in conformity with the stipu¬ 
lations of the cartel” should be regarded as valid. I further told you that an 
agreement to regard “as null and void” paroles between certain dates, which 
were “not in conformity with the stipulations of the cartel,” was an implication 
that paroles liable to the same objection before the first-named date, and after 
the last, should be regarded as valid, and was, therefore, necessarily vicious on 
its very face. I also told you that another reason for declining your proposition 
was the one which caused you to make it, to wit: That the paroles which had 
been given to us were between the dates embraced in your proposition, while 
those given to you were before and after. When I made the objection to your 
proposal that it intimated that paroles “not in conformity with the stipulations 
of the cartel,” before the 23d of May, and after the 3d of July of this year, 
were to be regarded as valid, I asked you to state in writing that no such inti¬ 
mation was conveyed. This you declined to do, saying somewhat brusquely 
that you did not wish to have any discussion about the matter. Upon my press¬ 
ing the subject, however, you put a memorandum at the foot of the proposition, 
saying that the proposal was in reply to my letter of August 5, 1863, and in 
lieu of the proposition therein made by me. You would not, did not, disclaim 
the implication which your proposition contained, nor have you done so since. 
My letter of the 5th of August only demanded, in compliance with your own 
General Order No. 100, that if you rejected the paroles, the parties should be 




EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 33 

delivered to us. You informed me that you would transmit my proposition to 
Washington, and give me a speedy answer in person or by letter. 

On the 7th of September I complained that no reply had been returned, al¬ 
though two weeks had elapsed and two boats had been despatched to City Point 
since the date of our interview. At the same time I informed you that the con¬ 
federate authorities would consider themselves entirely at liberty to pursue any 
course with reference to my proposition which they might deem right and pro¬ 
per under all the circumstances of the case. 

Accordingly, on the lltli of September, in pursuance of this plain intimation, 
I notified you that on the following day (that being the time when the notice 
would reach you) I would declare exchanged a portion of the Vicksburg cap¬ 
tures. I gave you the divisions, brigades, regiments, and batteries. I also in¬ 
formed you that I had in my possession more valid paroles of your officers and 
men than would be an equivalent for the exchange I then declared; that, in ad¬ 
dition, I had delivered at City Point some ten or twelve thousand men since 
the last declaration of exchange ; that as it had been the practice, however, of 
the agents of exchange whenever one of them declared a special exchange to 
allow the other to select the equivalents, I gave you that privilege, and if you 
did not avail yourself of it I would name the federal officers and men who were 
discharged from their parole by reasons of the declaration of exchange then 
made. This notification to you was not only in accordance with former practice, 
but was sanctioned, if not demanded, by the fifth article of the cartel, which, 
after providing for the manner in which “each party” may discharge “ their” 
officers and men from parole, says, “thus enabling each party to relieve from 
parole such of their own officers and men as the party may choose.” I have 
said this course was in accordance with former practice, and for proof refer you 
to the letters of Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, former agent of exchange, of the 
following dates of this year, to wit: April 6, 8, 13, 19, and 27, May 12, 26, 
and 30, June 5, 9, and 13, wherein he declared the exchange of federal officers 
and men. In one of Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow’s communications of May 30, 
1863, he says, “I have declared exchanged the Holly Springs capture; the 
ninety-first regiment Illinois volunteers, captured at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, 
December 27, 1862, and the captures at Mount Sterling on the 22d and 23d of 
March, 1863, also the officers and men of the Indianola. The exact numbers 
I have not on hand, but they foot up some hundreds less than the balance due. 
I will furnish you with the exact numbers as soon as received.” The same boat 
that conveyed that communication brought another written subsequently, but 
dated the same day, as follows: “I have declared exchanged the fifty-first 
(51st) regiment Indiana volunteers, seventy-third (73cl) regiment Indiana volun¬ 
teers, and third regiment Ohio volunteers. These number each less than three 
hundred men, and compose a part of Streight’s brigade. I will add to the 
above declaration the eightieth regiment Illinois volunteers, and fifty-eight (58) 
men of the first Tennessee cavalry.” 

The enlisted men alone, designated in either one of the communications, ex¬ 
ceeded the “ balance” due to Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow. The excess in both 
communications was 2,290, without taking into account “the captures at Mount 
Sterling on the 22d and 23d of March, 1863.” 

You will observe that Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, in these two communica¬ 
tions, did not furnish me with “any list, or even give me the number of men, 
by which I could declare equivalents, nor did he give me any time to prepare 
my announcement.” I quote from your letter of the 24th of September to me. 
Not only was that the case, but he made a wholesale exchange of the Mount 
Sterling capture by a simple reference to it as being made on the 22d and 23d 
of March, 1863, without any designation of corps, division, brigade, regiment, 
or company. Further than that, 1 have never to this day been furnished with 
a list of those captured at Mount Sterling, or even with the aggregate number. 

Ex. Doc. 17-3 



34 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Such, then, were the circumstances, and such the precedents, under which I 
declared the exchange of September 12, 1863. I have purposely gone into 
minute and faithful detail in consequence of the extraordinary character of your 
letter of the 24th of September. You state that you consider my course to be 
a deliberate breach of good faith on the part of the authorities under whom I 
act. In a bungling sort of way you have used language which casts an offen¬ 
sive aspersion both upon myself and the government I represent. If there had 
not been subjects of very grave import to both people referred to in other por¬ 
tions of your communication, I would have treated it with the silent contempt 
it deserved, and returned it to you without comment. For the first time in the 
correspondence of the agents of exchange has any such discourtesy occurred. 
I regret it very much. Heretofore I have had occasion to complain of the ac¬ 
tion of your government, but it has always been done with decorum. I have 
never written a word personally offensive to the federal agent of exchange, or 
insulted his government with a charge of (i deliberate breach of good faith.” 
It is a matter of very little moment to me what may be your opinion of “ my 
course.” There are some people connected with this war who, either from igno¬ 
rance or passion, seem to have no clear ideas on any subject. The opinion of 
such, even if uttered in the language of courtesy, is but of little avail, but if 
expressed with intemperance, only “exalts their folly.” There has been no 
breach of faith on the part of the Confederate States, “deliberate” or otherwise. 
You were importuned to agree to some fair principle by which paroles could be 
adjusted and computed. After patient waiting— after failure on your part to 
respond affirmatively or negatively—the confederate government, through its 
agent of exchange, did what was demanded by courtesy, and justified both by 
former practice and the provisions of the cartel. 

I now proceed to notice the misstatements of your letter. I will not call 
them “ deliberate,” although you had the means of correcting them at your 
hands, for such phraseology, so open to the imputation of discourtesy and 
coarseness, finds in such communications as the present only the precedent of 
your example. 

1. Your computation of paroles is incorrect on both sides. As to your item 
of 1,208 officers and 14,865 men, embraced by the first five sections of my ex¬ 
change notice, I have no exception to make. Some of our Vicksburg rolls 
were lost, and I have not the means of making an accurate computation as to 
them. Your second item, however, of 72 officers and 8,014 men, embracing the 
sixth section of my exchange notice, is incorrect. In the first place, all the 
officers on both, sides, who have been delivered at City Point, are exchanged. 
They were specially exchanged. Major Mulford knows that fact. All con¬ 
federate soldiers who were delivered at City Point up to May 23, 1863, in¬ 
cluding said date, were declared exchanged by Lieut. Colonel Ludlow, while 
the federal troops were only exchanged up to May 6, 1863. The number of 
confederate soldiers reduced to privates, delivered at City Point from May 23 
to July 25, (the date named in my notice,) is 5,881, instead of 8,014. The 
rolls show this very clearly. Of the federal troops on parole, you say there 
are 76 officers and 19,083 men. If these officers are those delivered at City 
Point, you make an error against yourself. They have been exchanged. From 
the 6th of May, 1863, (the time of the last exchange of federal troops) to the 
1st of September, 1863, (the time named in your notice) I have delivered at 
City Point alone, in privates, 18,610. All of these are on parole. I have 
other valid paroles in my possession, amounting to at least 16,000 more. Allow¬ 
ing, therefore, that your Vicksburg computation is correct, you owe me upon 
the last notice which you have published more than 7,000, instead of my owing 
you 10,024, as you claim. Many of the 16,000 paroles to which I have re¬ 
ferred have been acknowledged by Lieut. Colonel Ludlow in his correspondence. 
So much as to your computation, and your exchange notice based upon it. 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


35 


2. You say I failed to announce to you “ the sixth section of my exchange 
notice, as published in the Richmond Enquirer of the 10th instant, which covers 
72 officers and 8,014 enlisted men.” This is not so. On the 1st of August 
last I informed you in writing that I had declared exchanged all confederate 
soldiers who had been delivered at City Point, up to July 20, 1863. No de¬ 
liveries were made at City Point between July 20 and July 25, and there¬ 
fore one announcement was the same as the other. I did not inform you of 
the exchange of the City Point men in my letter of the 11th of September, 
because I had already notified you on the first of August. 

3. You say I did not furnish you with any list, or even give the number of 
men, by which you could declare equivalents, nor did I give you any time to 
prepare your announcement. You were furnished with the lists of all paroled 
men delivered at City Point, numbering, up to September 1, 18,610 men. As 
to other paroles held by me, you failed to accept or decline the terms upon 
which they were to be computed and adjusted, and therefore it was useless to 
send them. You had, or ought to have had, duplicates of many of them in 
your possession. If there was any particular capture on parole, or any special 
class of paroled men whom you wished to declare exchanged, you had only to 
announce that fact, and the lists would be furnished, if I had them and you had 
not. With what propriety could I send you lists which I believed to be in ac¬ 
cordance with the cartel, but which you intimated you would decline to acknowl¬ 
edge ? Moreover, according to my interpretation of the cartel, that instrument 
very clearly gives the right to you to select what federal officers and men shall 
be relieved from their parole, whenever I discharge our officers and men from 
their parole. I claim the same right when you declare an exchange of your 
paroled men. If I had sent you lists of such of your officers and men as were 
relieved from their parole by my declaration of exchange, I would in effect have 
violated that provision of the cartel which gives the right to “each party to re¬ 
lieve from parole such of their own officers and men as the party may choose.” 
It was entirely unnecessary for me to give you the number of men whom my 
notice declared exchanged. They were all Vicksburg captures, or City Point 
deliveries. You had the rolls of both. You had in your possession as much 
information as I could communicate, even if I had held the Vicksburg rolls, 
which I did not. I have already proved to you by the record that the former 
federal agent, when he declared exchanges, gave neither lists nor the number of 
men. There is, however, a more recent case. You yourself have just declared 
a sweeping exchange. You have not furnished me with any lists or designa¬ 
tion of corps, division, brigade, regiment, or company, notwithstanding the 
clamor you have raised about my omission in those particulars. Your objection 
as to want of time for the preparation of your announcement is a small one at 
best. The cartel does not make it incumbent upon me to give you time. Your 
predecessor did not give it to me. The correspondence, however, between us, 
before the 12 of September, was of such a nature as must have prevented a 
surprise. 

4. I did not make any such agreement with your predecessor, Lieut. Colonel 
Ludlow, as you state, nor did I ever make any agreement with any one, by 
which I renounced the right to claim the paroles given at Gettysburg. The 
first official letter which I ever addressed to you was in relation to this very 
subject. It bears date August 1, 1863, and is as follows : 

“Sir : In the ‘Army and Navy Official Gazette,’ of the date of July 14, 
1863, I find a letter of Lieut. Colonel Ludlow, of the date of July 7, 1863, 
addressed to Colonel J. C. Kelton. In it is the following paragraph, to wit: 

«' ‘ I have the honor also to state that, since the 22d of May last, it has been 
distinctly understood between Mr. Ould and myself that all captures must be 


36 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


reduced to possession, and that all paroles are to be disregarded, unless taken 
under the special arrangement of commanding officers of armies in the field, as 
prescribed in section seven of the cartel.’ 

“ If Lieut. Colonel Ludlow means that he had declared to me that such was 
the rule which had been adopted by the United States, in relation to captures 
and paroles, to go into effect from and after May 23, 1S63, he is entirely right. 
If he means that I, at any time, consented to adopt or acquiesce in any such 
rule, he is entirely wrong. All that passed between us on that subject is in 
writing. The correspondence will interpret itself. 

“ Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

“ ROBERT OULD, 

“ Agent of Exchange. 

“ Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, 

“ Agent of Exchange 

The General Order No. 100, issued at Washington, which Lieut. Colonel 
Ludlow communicated to me on the 23d of* May, 1863, in its 131st paragraph 
provides that “ if the government does not approve of the parole, the paroled 
officer must return into captivity, and should the enemy refuse to receive him 
he is free of his parole.” In no communication, in no interview with either 
Lieut. Colonel Ludlow or yourself, where the subject was under consideration, 
did 1 ever fail to demand that if your government rejected the paroles the 
parties should return into captivity. I had the warrant of your own general 
order for that demand, but pleaded it in vain. So far from carrying out its own 
general order, your government, on the 30th of June last, while the order was 
in force, and before the publication of General Order No. 207, convened a court 
of inquiry, and required the court to give its opinion on the following point, to 
wit: whether Major Duane and Captain Michler, captured and paroled on the 
28th of June, 1863, should be placed on duty without exchange, or be required 
to return to the enemy as prisoners of war. The general order required the 
latter,’ but the court found that the government was free to place those officers 
on duty without exchange. The reason given by the court was not that 
the federal agent and myself had agreed to regard such paroles as invalid, but 
that I had been notified they would not be recognized. It is true that I was 
informed that certain paroles would not he considered as valid, but I was also 
notified at the same time, by the same hand and through the same instrument, 
that the “ paroled officer ” must return into captivity if his parole was not ap¬ 
proved. In other words, on that day, May 23, 1863, Lieut. Colonel Ludlow, 
with little or no comment, delivered to me General Order No. 100 as the rules 
adopted for the government of the federal army. I never had any intimation 
that all the provisions of Generel Order No. 100 did not continue in force, un¬ 
til I received, on the 8th of July, 1863, the following letter from Lieut. Colonel 
Ludlow : 

“ Fort Monroe, July 7, 1863. 

“ Sir : I herewith enclose to you a copy of General Order No. 207, which con¬ 
tains some additional provisions to those mentioned in my communication to 
you of the 22d of May last. It is understood that officers of the United States 
and confederate officers have, at various times and places, paroled and released 
prisoners of war not in accordance with the cartel. 

“ The government of the United States will not recognize, and will not expect 
the confederate authorities to recognize, such unauthorized paroles. ‘ Prisoners 
released on parole, not authorized by the cartel, after my notice to you of the 
22d of May, will not be regarded as prisoners of war, and will not be exchanged.’ 

“ When prisoners of war have been released without the delivery specified in the 
cartel since the 22d of May last, such release will be regarded as unconditional, 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 37 

ancl the prisoners released as subject to orders without exchange, the same as if 
they had never been captured. 

“ I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

“WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

“ Lieutenant Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

“Hon. Robert Ould, 

“ Agent for Exchange of Prisoners .” 

The “notice” referred to in Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow’s letter was the de¬ 
livery of General Order No. 100, with its 131st paragraph. That paragraph 
was set aside by the provisions of General Order No. 207, which bears date 
July 3. 1863, three days after the submission of the question of the paroles of 
Duane and Michler to the court of inquiry, two days after its finding, and 
several days after our captures in the Gettysburg campaign. On the 7th of 
July, 1863, Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow substantially informs me that, although 
he notified me, on the 22d of May, that paragraph 131 of General Order No. 
100 was to be and continue in force; yet, under the circumstances of the case, 
and in view of what had taken place in Maryland and Pennsylvania, said para¬ 
graph was not to be considered as being in force at any time after the 22d of 
May, and General Order No. 207, although it was issued July 3, 1863, should 
be construed as bearing date the 22d of May preceding. 

It will be observed that Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, in his letter to me of the 
7th of July, nowhere says I had made any agreement with him, and yet it 
bears the same date as his letter to Colonel Kelton. It is apparent on the face 
of the paper that he is conveying to me errtain information for the first time, 
and that this information is the “additional provisions” of General Order No. 
207, one of which set aside paragraph 131 of General Orders No. 100. The 
court of inquiry in its finding, (see Army and Navy Officers’ Gazette, July 14, 
1863,) says I was “ notified f &c. Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, in his letter to 
Colonel Kelton, says it was distinctly “ understood ” between Mr. Ould and 
himself, &c. You, in your letter of the 24th of September, say I made an “ agree 
ment. ” with your predecessor. The notification first rises to an understanding, 
and is then elevated into an agreement. What farther promotion it will receive, 
remains to be seen. 

You have charged a deliberate breach of good faith upon the part of the Con¬ 
federate States. Let me bring to your attention an incident connected with 
this matter of release from paroles. On March 9, 1863, General Schenck, of 
immortal memory, issued a General Order No. 15, requiring all officers and 
men who had been captured and paroled in his department, and particularly in 
the Shenandoah valley, but who had not been exchanged, to return to duty on 
penalty of being considered deserters. Your General Order in force at that 
time—No. 49, February 28, 1863—in section 8, provided, that if the engage¬ 
ment which a prisoner made was not approved by his government, he was 
bound to return and surrender himself as a prisoner of war. The same General 
Order No. 49, in the same section 8, uses these memorable words, which I now 
set up against your present extraordinary claims, to wit: “ His own government 
cannot at the same time disown his engagement and refuse his return as a 
prisoner.” In spite of those honest words General Schenck issued his order, 
which, to this day, has not been countermanded; in effect, directing not only 
that such as were captured and paroled after March 9, 1863, should return to 
duty, but also all who had been captured and paroled under the circumstances 
named, since the beginning of hostilities, on penalty of being considered deserters. 

At that very time, and afterwards, even to as late as Stoneman’s raid, the 
former agent of exchange was charging against me and receiving credit for 
captures and paroles similar to those repudiated by Schenck’s order. It is due 
to Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow that I should say, that when the matter was 
brought to his attention, he declared that Schenck’s action was without proper 


38 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


authority, and that I would have credit for such as reported for duty under the 
order. Still the order was not countermanded, but, on the contrary, has been 
followed and sustained by General Order No. 207. I have received no returns 
of such as have reported under Schenck’s order, and never will. 

In your letter of the 24th of September, and others, you refer, in connexion 
with our Gettysburg captures, to “paroles not in accordance with the cartel.” 
The phrase figures not only in your correspondence, but in the findings of your 
courts, and in some of your general orders. Let me here, in the most formal 
manner, assure you that the confederate government considers the cartel to be 
binding and imperative to the fullest extent of any and all of its provisions. I 
have never asked you to respect a parole which is inconsistent with that instru¬ 
ment. You say the Gettysburg paroles are in contravention of the cartel. Let 
me give you some of them—all or nearly all of them belong to one or the other 
class: • 

“ I, the subscriber, a prisoner of war, captured near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 
do give my parole of honor not to take up arms against the Confederate States, 
or to do any military duty whatever, or to give any information that may be 
prejudicial to the interests of the same, until regularly exchanged. In the event 
that this parole is not recognized by the federal authorities, I give my parole of 
honor to report to Richmond, Virginia, as a prisoner of war within thirty (30) days. 

“JOHN E. PARSONS, 

“ First Lieutena7it and Adjutant 149 th P e?msylvania Volunteers .” 

“ I, the subscriber, a prisoner of war, captured near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania* 
do give my parole of honor not to take up arms against the Confederate States* 
or to do any military duty whatever, or to give any information that may be 
prejudicial to the interests of the same, until regularly exchanged. This parole 
is unconditional, and extended to a wounded officer for the sake of humanity, 
to save a painful and tedious journey to the rear. 

“ROY STOWE, 

“ Colonel 149 th Pennsylvania Volunteers .” 

“We, the undersigned, of the company and regiment opposite our names, 
do solemnly swear that we will not take up arms against the Confederate 
States of America until regularly exchanged, in accordance with the cartel, 
even if required to do so by our government.” 

“ The following named prisoners captured near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, are 
paroled on the following conditions, namely: not to take up arms against the 
Confederate States, or do any military duty whatever, or to give any informa¬ 
tion that may be prejudicial to the same, until regularly exchanged. This 
parole is unconditional, and if not recognized by the authorities of the United 
States government, all pledge themselves to repair to Richmond, as prisoners 
of war, at the expiration of twenty (20) days from this date.” 

Does the cartel contemplate that these officers and men should be returned to 
duty without exchange ? It nowhere says so upon its face. When we were 
without any cartel, all such paroles, and in fact all military paroles, were re¬ 
spected. The very first act of the agents of exchange was to adjust mutual 
accounts as to the officers and men who had been captured and paroled before 
the cartel was signed. If it had been intended by the cartel to repudiate such 
paroles as were given at Gettysburg, or upon any battle-field, a provision to 
that effect in distinct terms would have been incorporated in it. That instru¬ 
ment was intended to apply to “all prisoners of war held by either party”—to 
such as were in military depots or prisons—to such as had been removed from 
the battle-field or place of capture and reduced into actual possession. It 
left the force and effect of military paroles and the respect which should be 
paid to them, to be determined by the usages of civilized nations of modem 
times. It certainly did not purpose to prevent a wounded officer or man from 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


39 


entering into a stipulation not to take up arras until exchanged, as the condition 
of his release when his life would be at the serious risk of forfeit if he did not 
make the contract. Nor does it anywhere deny the right of any soldier, 
wounded or not, to bind his government by his military obligation, when he is 
in the hands of the enemy. The latter part of article 7 does not really con¬ 
trovert this view. That clause intended to give “ the commanders of two op¬ 
posing armies ” the power of declaring an exchange of prisoners, with its fur¬ 
ther right of paroling whatever surplus there might be after the exchange was 
arranged. Without such clause, the two commanders would have no right to 
declare an exchange. It was therefore inserted. Until recently nobody ever 
pretended that the cartel forbid the giving and receiving of ordinary military 
paroles. The uniform practice under the cartel for nearly a year sanctioned 
them. Whatever, however, may be the determination as to this matter, it is 
entirely clear that at the time the Gettysburg paroles were given, your own 
military law required that if the parole was not approved, the party should re¬ 
turn to our lines. Many of the paroles indicate on their face that the persons 
giving them were aware of that fact. I have therefore demanded that if you 
reject these paroles, the parties who gave them should be returned to us. The 
question between us is hot so much whether you will regard these paroles as 
valid, as whether you will comply with a rule of your own making, and which 
was advertised to us as being the controlling law of the case. 

I know not what you mean by your reference on your third page to article 
4 of the cartel. All the officers and men whom I declared exchanged were 
“actually restored to our lines.” All of the officers and men whom I requested 
you to select as equivalents for them in the exchange, “ had been restored to 
your lines.” The parties whom I have declared exchanged have not been 
“ returned to their paroles as requested by Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow.” I do 
not understand by what sort of reading of the exchange notice of the 12tli of 
September you make out that only “ two officers (Generals Stevenson and 
Bowen”) were exchanged. My letters of July 13,- September 11, and Septem- 
tember 26, will inform you of all the Vicksburg prisoners, officers and men, 
whom I have declared exchanged. 

Your objection to the declaration of the exchange of the general officers 
paioled at Vicksburg, because there were no equivalents of the same grade, is 
exploded by the provision of the cartel which declares “that men and officers 
of lower grades may be exchanged for officers of a higher grade.” 

I have thus answered all the items of your letter of the 24th of September. 
I regret the extreme length of the reply. I have, however, confined myself to 
the matter of that letter, and to such subjects as were directly connected with 
its contents. In a future communication I will call to your attention the 
instances of the violation of the cartel by the federal authorities. Notwith¬ 
standing the expression of their sudden regard for that instrument, I will show 
they have continued those violations from its date to the present moment. I, 
now inform you, in view of the recent declaration of exchange made by you 
coupled with your failure either to agree to or decline the proposition made to 
you on the 24th of August last in relation to paroles, that the confederate 
authorities will consider themselves entirely at liberty to pursue any course as 
to exchange or paroles which they may deem right and proper under all the 
circumstances of the case. At the same time I am directed to express their 
entire willingness to adopt any fair, just, and reciprocal rule in relation to those 
subjects without any delay. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULU, 


Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Agent of Exchange. 


40 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Washington City, D. C., 

October 2, 1863. 

Sir : Colonel Hoffman has just shown me another “ declaration of exchange* 
made by Mr. Ould, in which you do not appear to have been consulted. 

This mode of ex parte declarations is altogether inexplicable, being without 
warrant from any recognized authority, and may lead to unpleasant consequences 
to the parties declared thus exchanged if again taken prisoners, the nature 
of which cannot now be determined. 

On the subject of the crew of the Texana, please see the indorsement upon 
your last report on the subject, forwarded by mail to-day. 

In your conferences with Mr. Ould on the subject, you can explain that his 
propositions are not rejected contumaciously, but simply because there are com¬ 
plications in the matter which make it inexpedient to make a general declara¬ 
tion— one circumstance being, that among the prisoners in our hands a considera¬ 
ble number seem to dread nothing so much as being sent south. In many in¬ 
stances they declare a northern prison their choice in preference to being ex¬ 
changed. 

On this account, I wish you to obtain from Mr. Ould, if you can, a margin, 
so that w’e can, if we have them, make up the required number without taking 
active crews. 

It is hoped that the proposal for an exchange of medical officers and hospital 
attendants will lead to good results, and that chaplains will also be exchanged. 

Mr. Ould’s statement of the case of Spencer Kellogg, taking the facts to be 
as he states them, would appear to be satisfactory, though extremely painful, 
except that so far as his having been a spy before he was captured, is not re¬ 
garded as an offence to be punished after being captured. 

This principle is so laid down in the “ code” we published a few months 
since. But if Kellogg was a deserter, his fate followed the offence of deser¬ 
tion. 

I wish it were possible to-ootain the release of Doctor Rucker. The belief 
is universal on this side that he is not legitimately held. Make another trial in 
his behalf and that of Doctor Greene, whose fate is bound up with that of 
Doctor Rucker. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General of Volunteers , Comm’r for Exchange of Prisoners. 

General S. A. Meredith. 


Tort Monroe, Virginia, 

October 8, 1863. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of October 
5, 1S63, and in reply I will state, that at my interview with the rebel agent of 
exchange I demanded the release of Colonel Streight and his command to aid 
to make up the equivalent for paroled officers and men declared exchanged by 
him. Mr. Ould declined, on the ground that on the last notice of exchange 
which we published, the balance was in his favor, at the same time handing me 
a written statement to that effect, which I had the honor to hand you in person. 
His reply was the same in relation to Colonel Powell. 

Mr. Ould informed me that he should proceed to declare exchanges, whenever 
he conscientiously felt that he had the right to do so, for the purpose of putting 
men into the field. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchange. 

Major General E. A. Hitchcock, 

Commissioner of Exchanges, Washington, D. C. 







EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


41 


Office of Commissioner for Exchange, 

Fortress Monroe, Virginia, October S, 1S63. 

Sir: In accordance Avith the instructions contained in your letter of the 5th 
instant, I submitted the letters from S. D. Culbertson and A. Mclnnes, esqs., 
therein enclosed, to Mr. Ould, informing him that we knew of no prisoners iii 
our hands held under similar circumstances, and inviting him, if he knew of 
any, to name them, and make a mutual exchange. I explained to Mr. Ould 
that the United States authorities did not hold any person a prisoner on the 
ground that he was a citizen of the south, but always for some special cause. 
1 also informed him that if he could not name any, that within twenty-four 
hours after any given time the United States authorities could seize any re¬ 
quired number of secessionists in the south, to be exchanged for those referred 
to. Mr. Ould, in reply, stated that, notwithstanding, he would not make any 
special exchange, but that he was willing to make any arrangement which will 
be at all reciprocal, and he expresses himself perfectly willing to join in any 
general principle of exchange. 

In this connexion I will state that Mr. Ould informed me that the object of 
the rebel authorities in arresting citizens was a retaliatory measure, and for the 
purpose of bringing to bear such a pressure on the United States authorities as 
to cause them to refrain from making more arrests of sympathizers with the 
south. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchange. 

Major General E. A. Hitchcock, • 

Commissioner of Exchanges, Washington, D. C. 


[Exchange Notice, No. 7.] 

Richmond, October 16, 1863. 

The following confederate officers and men are hereby declared duly ex¬ 
changed : 

1. All officers and men captured and paroled at any time previous to the first 
of September, 1863. This section, however, is not intended to include any 
officers or men captured at Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, except such as were de¬ 
clared exchanged by exchange notice No. 6, September 12, 1863, or are spe¬ 
cifically named in this notice; but it does embrace all deliveries made at City 
Point, or other place, before September 1, 1863, and, with the limitation above 
named, all captures at Port Hudson, or any other place where the parties were 
released on parole. 

2. The staff of Generals Pemberton, Stevenson, Bowen, Moore, Barton, S. 
D. Lee, Cummings, Harris, and Baldwin, and of Colonels Reynolds, Cockrell, 
and Dockery, the officers and men belonging to the engineer corps and sappers 
and miners,"and the fourth and forty-sixth Mississippi regiments, all captured at 
Vicksburg, July 4, 1863. 

3. The general officers captured at Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, were declared 
exchanged July 13, 1863. 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 



42 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Headquarters Department of Virginia, 

Fort Monroe , October 17, 1863. 

Sik : On the 22d day of May, 1863, Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, the agent 
of exchange for the United States, enclosed you copies of General Orders No. 
49 and No. 100, of War Department, announcing regulations and instructions for 
the government of United States forces in the field, in the matter of paroles, 
stating that these orders and the cartel are to govern our forces. When the 
cartel conflicts with the orders, they must he set aside. The cartel requires 
that prisoners of war shall be delivered at certain named places, and if they 
are not so delivered, the paroles cannot be valid. In consequence of the usage 
which has governed both parties up to that time, instructions were subsequently 
issued that paroles given before the 22d of May should be considered valid, 
though deliveries had not been made, as required by the cartel. In order to 
the putting in force these instructions it was not necessary to ask your consent; 
we were only bound to notify you that from that time the cartel would be 
rigidly adhered to by us, and the same course would be exacted of the confed¬ 
erate authorities. If you wish paroles recognized when the parties were not 
delivered at the places named in the cartel, you £, ask that paroles not in con¬ 
formity with the stipulations of the cartel should be regarded as valid.” 

I will now proceed to show that your declaration of September 12 was not 
in accordance with the cartel. Your reference to acts of Lieutenant Colonpl 
Ludlow does not sustain you, for, according to your own letter, Lieutenant Col¬ 
onel Ludlow was declaring an exchange to cover a “ balance due” on declara¬ 
tions previously made by you. The troops thus declared exchanged by Lieu¬ 


tenant Colonel Ludlow are as follows: 

51st regiment of Indiana volunteers. 371 

75th regiment of Indiana volunteers. 268 

3d regiment of Ohio volunteers. 311 

Tennessee cavalry. 58 


1,008 

Paroled at Mount Sterling. .. 463 


1,471 

You state that the “ excess,” without taking into account the Mount Sterling 
captures, was 2,290, whereas the whole number, including said captures, amount 
only to 1,471. 

If in making up this balance Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow failed to give rolls 
and numbers, it does not justify you in anticipating a declaration by me, with¬ 
out furnishing me either rolls or numbers, or giving me time to consult the 
records to make them up for myself. When the paroling is properly done both 
parties have rolls, and then there can be little difficulty in arranging an exchange 
to be simultaneously declared. 

You state that when the federal troops were declared exchanged to the 6th 
of May, the confederates were declared exchanged to the 23d of May, inclusive. 
I have nothing to show that the exchanges on both sides were not alike. The 
confederate prisoners delivered between the two dates amount to 5,0S3 privates, 
and if we have already received equivalents for them they should be deducted 
from my former computation. Without counting these, the number covered by 
your declaration of September 12, and the subsequent explanatory declaration 
of September 26, amounts to 29,450. The number of federal troops on parole 
to September 1, and declared exchanged, amounts to 23,911. The officers in¬ 
cluded are those paroled at Gettysburg and elsewhere; not those delivered at 
City Point. These numbers differ from those given to you before, because, in 










EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 43 

making up that calculation, all enlisted men were counted alike, whereas non¬ 
commissioned officers should have been counted as two privates. 

Giving you the credit for the 5,083 enlisted men which you state were de¬ 
livered at City Point between the 6th and the 23d of May, and declared ex¬ 
changed by Colonel Ludlow, you are now in our debt 5,539 enlisted men. 

You state that you have in your possession valid paroles amounting to 16,000 
men. For all the prisoners that we claim as on parole we can show the rolls of 
delivery at the places named in the cartel, receipted by confederate officers; and 
if you can show similar rolls of the 16,000 men you speak of, they will of 
course be recognized as valid, and you will be credited with them. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchange. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent of Exchange , Richmond, Virginia. 


Richmond, October 20, 1863. 

Sir : More than a month ago I asked your acquiescence to a proposition that 
all officers and soldiers on both sides should be released in conformity with the 
provisions of the cartel. In order to obviate the difficulties between us, I sug¬ 
gested that all officers and men on both sides should be released, unless they 
were subject to charges, in which event, the opposite government should have 
the right of retaining one or more hostages if the retention was not justified. 
“ You stated to me in conversation that this proposition was very fair,” (this 
statement is not true,) and that you would ask the consent of your government 
to it. As usual, you have as yet made no response. I tell you frankly I do not 
expect any. Perhaps you may disappoint me, and tell me that you reject or 
accept the proposition. I write this letter for the purpose of bringing to your 
recollection my proposition, and of dissipating the. idea that seems to have been 
purposely encouraged by your public papers, that the confederate government 
has refused or objected to a system of exchanges. 

In order to avoid any mistake in that direction, I now propose that all officers 
and men on both sides be released in conformity with the provisions of the car¬ 
tel, the excess on one side or the other to be on parole. Will you accept this? 
I have no expectation of an answer, but, perhaps, you may give one. If it does 
come, I hope it will be soon. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Dej)artment, Richmond , Va., October 27, 1863. 

Sir : In reply to your communication of the 17th instant, 1 state that General 
Orders Nos. 49 and 100 were not sent to me at the same time. I received 
General Order No. 49 long before No. 100 was delivered to me. Their respective 
dates will show that to be the fact. My own personal recollection is, that Gen¬ 
eral Order No. 100 was never communicated in a letter. It is my habit faith¬ 
fully to keep all letters written by the federal agent of exchange. A careful 
search of the records of my office does not disclose any letter from Lieutenant 




44 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Colonel Ludlow communicating General Order No. 100. Lieutenant Colonel 
Ludlow met me at City Point on tlic 23d of May, 1863, and lie then and there 
delivered to me General Order No. 100, stating that the principles therein an¬ 
nounced would, in the future, control the operations of the forces of the United 
States. No written communication accompanied it. If any one was ever written 
to accompauy it, I never received it. You are in error, therefore, when you say 
that Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow on the 22d May, 1863, enclosed copies of 
General Orders No. 49 and No. 100, announcing regulations and instructions for 
the government of the United States forces in the field in the matter of paroles, 
stating that these orders and the cartel were to govern your forces, and that when 
the cartel conflicted with the orders they were to be set aside. Independent of 
the facts of the case, I am justified in saying that any such communication would 
have been very extraordinary. It would not only have admitted that the 
general orders were in violation of the cartel, but would have declared that the 
later general order which, on its face, was announced to be the controlling law, 
should be set aside by the provisions contained in an earlier paper. 

I again assert that the only notification I ever received as to your successive 
changes of purpose in the matter of paroles was from your own general orders, 
according to their respective dates, delivered to me without any further comment 
than I have already communicated to you. 

You further say my “ reference to the acts of Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow” 
does not sustain me. You further say the troops thus declared exchanged by 


Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow are as follow^ : 

51st regiment Indiana volunteers. .. 371 

75th.regiment Indiana volunteers.. . .. 268 

3d regiment Ohio volunteers... 311 

'Tennessee cavalry.... 58 


1,008 

Paroled at Mount Sterling. 463 


1,471 


Permit me to say that I read this paragraph of your letter with very great 
surprise. In my letter of the 2d instant, whicli you were contesting, I gave at 
length the communications of Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, and by reference to 
it you will find that not only are the regiments which you have named therein 
mentioned, but also the Holly Springs capture, numbering 1,383 privates; the 
91st Illinois regiment, numbering 649 privates; the officers and men of the In- 
dianola, numbering 69 privates ; and the 80th regiment Illinois volunteers, num¬ 
bering 400 privates. Not only is that the case, but your enumeration of 1,471 
privates in the specified regiments is incorrect. The true aggregate is 1,676 pri¬ 
vates. You misname one of the regiments also. The regiment declared ex¬ 
changed was not the 75th Indiana, but the 73d. 

In an interview with me at City Point, in the presence of Major Mulford, you 
admitted that all confederate officers and soldiers delivered at City Point before 
the 23d of May, 1863, were declared exchanged, while the federal soldiers were 
only declared exchanged up to May 6, 1863. Yet in your letter written subse¬ 
quent to this admission you say you “ have nothing to show that exchanges on 
both sides were not alike.” Since your letter of the 17th, on our last interview, 
you made the same admission. If the fact is denied at any time, I stand pre¬ 
pared to prove it. 

As to your computation, based upon my declarations of exchange, I refer you 
to my letter of the 2d of October, 1863. Every statement therein contained is 
strictly and accurately correct. I again assert, what I am ready to prove, that 












EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 45 

I have in my possession more valid paroles of your officers and men than would 
be an equivalent for the exchanges I have declared up to this date. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OELD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 


COi\ FEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 

War Department , Richmond , Virginia , October 27, 1863. 

Sir : I enclose to you a memorandum of the paroles to which I have referred 
in several recent communications. Most of these paroles, you will observe, are 
antecedent to May 23,1863. The reason why these paroles have not been hereto¬ 
fore discharged is, that up to July, 1863, we had the advantage of prisoners and 
paroles. Not one of these paroles is covered by any declaration of exchange, 
except the one lately made by you. For no one of them have I received any 
equivalent. All of them, since the date of your General Order No. 207, were 
given in pursuance of a distinct agreement between the commanders of two 
opposing armies. I have many other paroles in my possession, but I have 
only presented those which are within the terms of your general orders, 
according to their respective dates. 

I understand there are other paroles coming within the same general orders, 
which were given by your officers and men on the other side of the Mississippi 
river. They as yet have not reached me. When they do, and when I show 
they are within the scope of your general orders, 1 will claim them; other¬ 
wise, I will discard them. 

I have also received other informal paroles, which I have sent back for 
correction. These were also within the provisions of your general orders. 
When they are returned, I will claim them also. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 



46 


EXCHANGE OE PRISONERS. 


Tabular statement of the number of valid federal paroles , 

[This paper was sent by Mr. Ould to General Meredith, with a letter dated October 27 , 1863.] 


Where captured. 


By whom. 


When. 


No. of 
prisoners. 


Lavergme, Tennessee. 

Lexington, Tennessee. 

Benton Station, Tennessee. 

Near Spring creek, Tennessee. .. 

Trenton, Tennessee. 

Near Rutherford Station, Tenn.. 

Union City. 

Parker’s Cross Roads & Dresden. 

Kentucky and Tennessee. 

Tennessee. 

Liberty, Tennessee. 

Kentucky and Tennessee. 

Near Murfreesboro’, Tennessee .. 
Galveston and Houston, Texas .. 

Tennessee. 

Kentucky and Tennessee. 

Steam-ram Queen of the West... 

Near Memphis, Tennessee. 

West Liberty and McMinnville .. 

Spring Hill, Tennessee. 

Liberty, Tennessee. 

Near Rappahannock, Virginia .. 

Bourbon county, Kentucky. 

Western Virginia. 

Chancellorsville, Virginia. 

Western Virginia. 

Banks’s Ford, Virginia. 

Fredericksburg, Virginia. 

Vicksburg and vicinity. 

Near Monticello, Tennessee. 

Hinds county, Mississippi. 

Eastern Virginia. 

Rome, Georgia. 

Mississippi. 

Kentucky and Tennessee. 

Holly Springs, Mississippi. 

Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

Pax-oled at Salisbury, N. C. 

Perrysville, Va. Gettysburg, Pa. 

Dover, Pennsylvania. 

Rockville, Maryland. 

Paroled at Williamsport . 

Morris island, South Carolina_ 

Near Chattanooga, Tennessee ... 
Miscellaneous paroles. 


General Wheeler. 

General Forest. 

..do. 

.do.. 

..do. 

..do. 

.do. 

..do. 

General Morgan. 

General Wheeler. 

General Morgan. 

.do. 

General Bragg. 

Receipted for at Baton Rouge. 

General Wheeler. 

Generals Wheeler & Morgan.. 
Receipted for at Baton Rouge. 

Jackson’s cavalry. 

General Morgan. 

Bragg’s command. 

.do. 

Major Mosby. 

General Marshall. 

General Jones. 

General Lee. 

General Imboden. 

General Lee. 

.do. 

Pemberton’s command. 

General Pegram. 

Captain Reiley, 8th Kentucky. 

Major Mosby. 

Bragg’s command. 

.do.. 

.do. 

General Van Dorn. 


General Lee.. 

General Stewart.... 

.do. 

.do. 

General Beauregard 
General Bragg.. 


December 11 and 31, 1862. 

December 17, 1862. 

December 18 and 22, 1862. 

December 19, 1862. 

December 20, 1862. 

December 21, 1862. 

December 23, 1862. 

Dec. 25,1862, and Jan. 9, 1863... 
Dec. 7, 1862, and Jan. 27, 1863... 
Dec. 30,1862, and Jan. 5, 1863... 
Dec. 26, 1862, and Feb. 13,1863.. 
Dec. 20,1862, and Jan. 10, 1863.. 

December 31, 1862. 

January 1 and 22,1863 . 

January 10 and 14,1863. 

Jan. 10 and Feb. 14,1863. 

February 14, 1863. 

.do. 

Feb. 14 and March 7,1863 . 

March 7, 1863 . 

.do. 

.do. 

April 11, 1863. 

.do. 

May 1 and 4, 1863. 

May and June, 1863. 

May 4, 1863 . 

.do. 

.do. 

May 25, 1863. 

May 26 and June 6, 1863. 

June 11.. 

April 30 and May 2. 1863. 

May 12 and 22, 1863. 

May 1 and 20, 1863. 

December, 1862. 

February 24, 1863. 

May 24, 1863....,. 

July 2, 1863 . 

.do. 

.do. 

July 13, 1863 . 

July, 1863. 

September, 1863 -. 


Total 


128 

140 

45 

111 ) 

684 

144 

86 

268 

190 

381 

78 

2,025 

559 

359 

318 

111 

21 

10 

51 

103 

134 

39 

3 

375 

1, 709 
18 
128 
126 
492 
19 
742 
16 
66 
17 
85 

1, 694 
302 

1,394 

2, 689 
229 
157 

75 

142 

2,372 

33 


18, 867 


Office of Commissioner for Exchange, 

Fort Monroe , Virginia , October 29, ] 863. 

Sir : I am in receipt of your communication of the 20th instant, the tenor of 
which induces me to make some explanatory statements of facts with which it 
would seem you need to be reminded. 

The system of exchanges of prisoners of war, determined in the existing 
cartel, was first interrupted by the declared purpose of the confederate govern¬ 
ment to make certain distinctions in the treatment of a particular class of troops, 
officers and men, in violation of the provisions of the cartel. This seems to 
have been the first step towards the irregularities which have culminated in 
your unequivocal declaration, reported by me to my government on the 18th 
instant, that “ (you) will proceed to declare exchanges whenever (you) consci¬ 
entiously feel that (you) have the right to do so, for the purpose of putting men 
into the field.” 

There can be no objection to your acting conscientiously in any given case, 
so long as your conscience is enlightened and guided by those laws of war 
































































































































EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


47 


which require obedience between belligerents to solemn agreements entered into 
by authorized commissioners, acting in the name of their respective superiors. 
But if you mean by the expression, your “ conscientious sense of right,” to 
substitute this sense of right for the requirements of an existing cartel, I can 
by no means concede to you that right; and if you do not mean this, I cannot 
understand what you mean by so vague and general a declaration. Judging 
by your recent proceedings, it seems that you have declared exchanged all 
confederate officers and soldiers on parole within what you claim as your lines, 
up to a very recent date, without having any proper right to do so, either under 
the cartel or under the laws of war. 

The history of this matter, as I understand it, is briefly this : While my 
predecessor on duty at this place was here in discharge of the duties now com¬ 
mitted to me, you at one time made a declaration of exchange, embracing no 
great number of prisoners of war, not in accordance with the requirements of 
the cartel, and you invited Colonel Ludlow, my predecessor, to make a corre¬ 
sponding declaration of equivalents. Such a declaration was made by Colonel 
Ludlow, doubtless without anticipating the magnitude of the evil which appears 
now as the result of that departure from the cartel, first inaugurated by your¬ 
self. Subsequently to my coming on duty here the events of the war threw 
upon your hands a large body of paroled officers and men, over 30,000, cap¬ 
tured by General Grant at Vicksburg; and not long afterwards, some six thou¬ 
sand or more captured by General Banks at Port Hudson. 

Suddenly, and without any proper conference or understanding with me, and 
but a few days prior to the important events at Chickamauga, as if for the 
express purpose of increasing the force of General Bragg against General 
Rosecrans, you gave me notice that, on the next day after the date of that 
notice, you would declare exchanged a large portion of the troops which had 
been captured by General Grant. When your declaration was made, it covered 
an indeterminate number of troops, designated by commands, brigades, divisions 
and corps, no definite number of either officers or men being designated. Up 
to that time you had delivered at City Point a certain number of prisoners of 
war for which you had receipts, by which you must have known the number 
you might claim the right to discharge from their parole. You did not think 
proper to limit yourself to this number, nor in any proper manner did you refer 
to it, but made your declaration of exchange in such indefinite terms as made 
it next to certain that you did not intend to be governed by the cartel. 

On referring to the data furnished by the reports of General Grant, and now 
in the hands of the commissary general of prisoners at Washington, it was 
ascertained that you had discharged from parole by your declaration a very 
considerable number of your men, over and above any claim you might pretend 
to, founded on receipts for prisoners of war delivered from the south according 
to the cartel. Without referring to fractions, it appeared, from the best data in 
our hands, that you had discharged three for two , or one-third more than you 
were entitled to. You suggested that I should make a corresponding decla¬ 
ration of exchange, when, as I suppose you must have known, you had not 
delivered to me, nor had you valid paroles of our men, sufficient to cover the 
number declared exchanged by yourself; and when I proceeded to make the decla¬ 
ration extending to those men you had delivered, and stated to you my objec¬ 
tions to your proceedings, you insisted that you had valid paroles for more than 
the number that you had declared exchanged, though you failed to produce 
those paroles or to give any account or history of them; and you then proceed 
to make a further declaration of exchange, ignoring the cartel altogether, basing 
your action upon no data communicated to me, the whole proceeding resting, as 
1 suppose you will say, upon your sense of right, as if you were the only party 
having a right to an opinion on the subject; acting evidently in anticipation of 
the formal declaration, referred to at the commencement of this communication, 


48 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


that you will proceed to make declarations of exchange for the purpose of 
putting troops into the field whenever you think proper; and having now 
exhausted by a declaration of exchange the paroled prisoners in your hands, 
you propose to me the delivery of prisoners of war in our hands for whom you 
have no equivalents, or comparatively but very few, in order, as it were, that 
you may obtain possession of many thousands more men of your own, delivered 
or on parole, for the purpose of declaring them also exchanged, and putting 
them into the field, not in conformity with the existing cartel, nor in accordance 
with the usages of war, but whenever, in your individual judgment, you may 
think it proper to do so. 

I have only to add that an easy inference from this statement is the answer 
I have to make to your proposal of the 20th instant, which is not accepted. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner of Exchange. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Washington City, D. C., October 30, 1863. 

Sir : I observe that Mr. Ould claims that if the paroles given at Gettysburg 
by our troops are not to be considered valid, the troops should be returned as 
captured, because an order requires our commanders to return troops when im¬ 
properly paroled on the field of battle. 

This pretension is so manifestly inadmissible, that I have not thought neces¬ 
sary to answer it in form. 

The principles involved are these: paroles on the field of battle, often given 
in haste by an enemy unable to take care of or secure them, are informal and 
invalid by the laics of war. 

As a measure of discipline in the army, an order was issued (the order ap¬ 
pealed to by Mr. Ould) requiring officers fiot to receive, but to return prisoners 
when thus improperly paroled. This order is purely disciplinary in our service, 
and has nothing to do with the principle, the law of rear , by which paroles im¬ 
properly given are declared to be invalid. It might be considered as designed 
to give effect to the law of paroles, but in no sense would the conduct of our 
commanders under this order make valid paroles improperly given. A com¬ 
mander who should disobey this order might be tried for such disobedience, 
being answerable to the authority by which the order was given, but the 
requirements of the laws of war on the subject of paroles would be in no 
manner affected thereby. 

Besides, the order to our commanders, referred to, was designed to take effect 
on the field of battle, or immediately thereafter, on the assumption that prisoners 
so returned upon the enemy would be left on the field, the enemy being sup¬ 
posed to be in no condition to secure them—the very reason why the law of 
war makes paroles thus given invalid. But this view is fully justified by the 
practice of the enemy. In a recent case a party, including Lieutenant Colonel 
Allston, (recently exchanged,) was informally paroled. The enemy immediately 
so declared, and ordered every officer and man upon duty. Lieutenant Colonel 
Allston, however, chose to act individually; and on the ground of having given 
his parole, he declared that he would not go upon duty until exchanged; and 
upon this view he delivered himself up to General Burnside, and then, but not 
until then, he became a prisoner of war. General Burnside considered his case 
peculiar, as manifesting a high sense of honor, and recommended his immediate 
exchange, which was accordingly ordered by the Secretary of War. 





EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


49 


We do not deny the right to order that party on duty under the circumstances, 
precisely answering to the case of our own men at Gettysburg. 

We do not claim that Lieutenant Colonel Allston was our prisoner under the 
parole he gave, but because he subsequently delivered himself into the hands 
of General Burnside. 

With these views we claim that the Gettysburg paroles were invalid, and 
this principle must be adhered to. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General Volunteers , fyc. 

Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, 

Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Confederate States of America, 

T Var Department, Richmond , Virginia , October 31, 1863. 

Sir : In relation to your communication of the 23d instant, enclosing a letter 
from W. P. Wood to General Hitchcock, I submit the following: 

More than a year ago, recognizing the injustice of the arrest of non-combat¬ 
ants, I submitted the following proposition to the federal authorities, to wit: 
“ that peaceable non-combatant citizens of both the United and Confederate 
States, who are not connected with any military organization, shall not be ar¬ 
rested by either the United States or confederate armies within the territory of 
the adverse party. If this proposition is too broad, let the only exception be 
the case of a temporary arrest of parties within army lines, where the arresting 
party has good reason to believe that their presence is dangerous to the safety 
of the army from the opportunity afforded of giving intelligence to the enemy. 
It is to be understood, however, in the latter case, the arrest is to cease as soon 
as the reason for making it ceases, in the withdrawal of the army, or for any 
other cause. This proposal is understood to include such arrests and imprison¬ 
ments as are already in force.” 

Although this proposition, so reasonable and humane in its terms, has been 
before your government for more than a year, it has never been accepted. I 
now again call your attention to it. If it does not suit you, I will thank you 
to suggest any modification. I am willing to adopt any fair and reciprocal rule 
that will settle this matter on principle. It must, however, be settled by rule. 
It cannot with any safety be determined by “ special cases.” 

You ask me if I will release your citizens against whom there are no charges. 
Would it not be more liberal to make that offer on your part as far as our 
citizens are concerned, before you ask our consent? You have kept confeder¬ 
ate citizens in prison for many months without charges. Most of them have 
never had any charges preferred against them, although, in the opinion of your 
authorities, there were “ special reasons” for their arrest. How easy is it to 
give or invent a special reason ? In all probability there never has been an 
arrest and imprisonment on either side since this war began, for which there 
was not “ a special cause.” An arrest for retaliatory reasons, even, is special. 

As far as the arrest of citizens of the Confederate States by our authorities 
is concerned, we will submit to no interference in any way by the federal gov¬ 
ernment. It is matter with which you have nothing to do. The confederate 
authorities no not interfere with your arrests of your own people, no matter 
what injustice has been done to them. Any attempt on the part of the federal 
government to interpose in cases wLicli only concern our authorities and the 
people of these Confederate States may be justly styled impertinent and med- 
Ex. Doc. 17-4 




50 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


dlesome. As far, however, as the arrests of citizens of the adverse party is 
concerned, we are at all times ready to adopt any fair and reciprocal rule. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Brigadier General Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Office of Exchange of Prisoners, 

Richmond , Virginia , October 31, 1863. 

Sir : Your communication of the 29tli instant has been received, and its ex¬ 
traordinary and groundless statements read with surprise. 

You first represent me as having informed you that I would proceed to de¬ 
clare exchanges whenever I conscientiously felt that I had the right to do so, 
for the purpose of putting men into the field. In another part of your letter I 
am charged with having stated that I would proceed to make declarations of ex¬ 
change for the purpose of putting troops into the field whenever I thought 
proper. Both of these paragraphs are between quotation marks, to indicate that 
I had communicated them. Moreover, they are mentioned as being my “une¬ 
quivocal declaration.” Upon a faithful examination of my correspondence with 
you and your predecessor, I can find no instance in which such language has 
been used by me. Will you inform me of the date of any such communication, 
or furnish me with a copy of it 1 If you cannot, you will certainly deem me 
justified in denouncing your statement as utterly without foundation in truth. 

Upon these premises you have proceeded to throw off sundry sentences more 
flippant than worthy of notice. As usual, however, you finish the paragraph 
which contains them with a misstatement in asserting that I “have declared ex¬ 
changed all confederate officers and soldiers on parole” within our lines, “up to 
a very recent date.” I have done no such thing. I specially excepted the 
larger part of the Vicksburg capture. 

You then proceed to give what you call “a history of this matter.” That 
history, like many others, turns out to be a romance. Lieutenant Colonel Lud¬ 
low’s declarations of exchange, to which I referred in my letter of October 2, 
1863, were not made in response to any invitation from me, or in consequence 
of any previous declarations which I had made. I did not “inaugurate” what 
you term “a departure from the cartel.” The correspondence of the office very 
clearly shows that fact. 

You are wrong also in your statement that the Vicksburg capture was subse¬ 
quent to your “coming to duty” at Fortress Monroe. I received official com¬ 
munications from Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow as late as July 22, 1863—weeks 
after the Vicksburg surrender—and none from you until the 25th of the same 
month. 

You charge that the declaration of exchange bearing date September 12, 
1863, was made “as if for the express purpose of increasing the force of General 
Bragg against General Rosecrans.” This is also untrue. The declaration was 
not published until several days after the 12th, although it bore that date. Not 
one of the officers or men named in that declaration of exchange was on the 
battle-field of Chickamauga. 

You further say I must have known that I had not delivered to you, nor had 
I valid paroles of your men, sufficient to cover the number declared exchanged 
by me. I knew exactly the contrary, and so informed you. On the 11th of 
September, 1863, in announcing the declaration of exchange I would make on 
the following day, I wrote to you that I had “in my possession more valid 




EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


51 


paroles of your officers and men than would be an equivalent for the officers and 
men” enumerated in the exchange notice. I have made the same statement to 
you more than once since. I am prepared to prove that it was true each time 
it was uttered. 

You say your declaration of exchange extended to those whom I had deliv¬ 
ered. If you mean that it was limited to such you are incorrect, for it declared 
exchanged all officers and men of the United States army captured and paroled 
at any time previous to the 1st of September, 1863, and included many thousands 
of prisoners taken and paroled by our cavalry and other forces in numerous 
States of the confederacy, never delivered by me. I have already furnished 
you a memorandum of at least sixteen thousand of these paroled prisoners. 

You say I failed to produce the paroles, or to give any account or history of 
them. If you mean that I refused to do so, it is not true. I offered to produce 
them at any time, and importuned you to agree to some principle by which 
they could be computed and adjusted. When I last met you at City Point you 
requested me for the first time to send to you a memorandum of the paroles 
claimed as valid by me. I furnished you with the list on the 27th instant, that 
being the first day after your request on which a flag of truce boat appeared at 
City Point. 

You say I then proceeded to make a further declaration of exchange, “ignor¬ 
ing the cartel altogether,” and resting the whole proceeding, as you suppose, on 
my “sense of right.” There again you are mistaken. I did not rest the pro¬ 
ceeding entirely upon my sense of right. I relied, in some measure, upon yours, 
and to that extent its propriety may be doubtful. In communicating to you 
exchange notice No. 7, which is the one to which you refer, I wrote to you as 
follows: “I herewith enclose to you a declaration of exchange, which I shall 
publish in a day or two. You will perceive it is based upon the declaration of 
exchange communicated to me in your letter of the 24th of September last. In 
my notice I have followed your phraseology. I would have preferred another 
form of declaration, more in accordance with the circumstances of the case. 
Inasmuch, however, as my declaration to a considerable extent is retaliatory of 
yours, I have deemed it more appropriate to follow your own form of expres¬ 
sion.” Your letter of the 24th of September declared that “all officers and men 
of the United States army captured and paroled at any time previous to the 
1st of September, 1863, are duly exchanged.” On the 16th of October follow¬ 
ing I declared exchanged “all (confederate) officers and men captured and pa¬ 
roled at any time previous to the 1st of September, 1863.” If that was “ignor¬ 
ing the cartel,” as you charge, I only followed your example. Our declarations 
of exchange were precisely similar, except that in another part of my notice I 
reserved from its operation the larger part of the Vicksburg paroles.. If I had 
followed your “sense of right,” as I then had, and still claim, the right to do, I 
would have included all. 

The confederate authorities take it unto themselves as a proud and honorable 
boast that they have determined all these matters of paroles and exchanges ac¬ 
cording to their “sense of right,” and not by any views of temporary expedi¬ 
ency. In following that guide, they have at least shunned some examples fur¬ 
nished by your government. They have never, in violation of their general 
orders, and without notice to the adverse party, ordered their paroled officers 
and men to break their solemn covenant, and, without exchange, lift their arms 
against their captors. They have, therefore, escaped the pangs of that retributive 
justice which made your general order of July 3, 1863, though so well suited 
to the meridian of Gettysburg, invalidate the paroles given at Port Hudson on 
the 9th of the same month. Upon further reflection, 1 am sure you will be sat¬ 
isfied that it does not become your authorities, who have chosen, whenever they 
felt so disposed, without notice, or consent from us, to repudiate the established 


52 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


usages of exchange and put new constructions upon the cartel, to complain that 
others have acted according to their sense of right. 

Not content with all the misstatements of fact which I have cited, you have, 
in your letter of the 29th instant, descended to a malignant and wanton asper¬ 
sion of the motives of the confederate authorities in making the proposal con¬ 
tained in my letter of the 20tli instant. You were asked to agree “that all officers 
and men on both sides should be released, the excess on one side or the other to 
he on parole.” It would have been injustice enough to the many thousands of 
your prisoners in our hands, and to those of ours in your custody, simply to 
have declined the proposal. But you have thought proper to add to your refu¬ 
sal the gratuitous insult to the Confederate States of intimating that their fair 
and honest offer was made for the purpose of putting into the field officers and 
men fraudulently exchanged. This calumny is as destitute of foundation in 
fact as it is despicable in spirit. 

In conclusion, let me tell you that the purpose of your letter is apparent. It 
has been well known for a long time that your authorities are opposed to a fair 
and regular exchange of prisoners under the cartel. In rejecting my proposi¬ 
tion you have endeavored to conceal under a cloud of vague charges and un¬ 
founded statements, the determination at which your government long since ar¬ 
rived. Why not be frank once ? Why not say, without any further subter¬ 
fuges, that you have reached the conclusion that our officers and soldiers are more 
valuable, man for man, than yours ? 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Washington City, D. C., November 6, 1863. 

Sir: Your communication of the 29th ultimo has been received, forwarding 
what purports to be a tabular statement of the number of valid paroles claimed 
by Mr. Ould, with a copy of his letter, accompanying it, to yourself, of the 
27th ultimo. 

This tabular statement covers a claim to 18,867 paroles of federal troops, 
without distinction of grade; no officers or non-commissioned officers being noticed 
as among the prisoners. The statement professes to enumerate forty-four places 
where captures w^ere made, with the names of captors, and dates of capture; the 
number said to have been captured being carried out in figures. 

This statement may include some prisoners captured and paroled according 
to the laws of war; but, if so, it is impossible to distinguish them by any evi¬ 
dence in the statement itself. A few are said to have been “receipted for” at 
Baton Rouge, January 22,1863, and February 14,1863, which may be verified ; 
and some evidence may come to light confirming the alleged captures by Generals 
Lee, Bragg, and possibly some others; but, on the whole, the statement is un¬ 
satisfactory, and in its present form is regarded as without credit and not en¬ 
titled to consideration. 

The statement does not show in any one instance by whom the prisoners 
were received, or to whom or even where they were delivered, leaving it to be 
presumed that they were for the most part paroled on the instant of capture, 
without authority under the cartel, in not being “reduced to actual possession,” 
contrary to both the laws of war as set forth in Order No. 100 of 1863, and the 
provisons of the cartel. Order No. 100 merely publishes the laws of war, and 
the cartel is entirely in harmony with it. 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


53 


The orders on this subject subsequently issued, and to which Mr. Ould ap¬ 
peals, were expressly designed to give effect to those laws, and to the cartel, 
and were in no manner intended to abrogate, and neither do they abrogate or 
modify, the one or the other. If the enemy wishes in good faith to carry out 
the orders he refers to, the proper course would be to issue similar orders, and 
tor a like purpose; in which case, there might be some hope of a compliance 
with both the cartel and the laws of war. 

Mr. Ould’s effort to have recognized certain paroles as valid, which have been 
informally and improperly made, embracing, so far as we can know from his 
statements, many citizens in Kentucky, Tennessee, and elswhere, (no particular 
place being named in some instances,) by appealing to northern orders, is a 
mere perversion of the clear and manifest design of those orders; that design 
being, as already stated, to enforce, and not to nullify, the laws of war. We 
appeal to those orders, and intend to be governed by them, and if the enemy 
would assume them, and be governed by them also, all difficulties on the subject 
of paroles would cease. By Mr. Ould’s mode of application or misapplication 
of those orders, he would use them to destroy and not to enforce the laws of 
war. 

The laws of war are first in order, imposing obligations upon belligerents; 
and they continue to be obligatory upon both parties, unless modified by a 
special agreement under a cartel, which, when agreed upon, becomes the highest 
authority in all specified cases included in the cartel, leaving the laws of war 
in full operation in all cases not provided for in the cartel; a cartel being analo¬ 
gous to a treaty of commerce between nations, which may modify the natural 
laws of trade or commerce, binding both parties to the treaty. 

The orders of a general in the field, or of a general-in-chief of one of the bel¬ 
ligerents, are only operative within the field of the general’s command, and can 
have no effect to modify either the laws of war or the provisions of a particular 
cartel. Such orders are purely disciplinary in the army where issued, and can 
neither bind an enemy, nor can an enemy appeal to them to justify his departure 
from or violation of either a particular cartel, or the laws of war. A departure 
from such an order within the army subject to the authority issuing the order 
might subject the offender to punishment within his own army, but could not be 
appealed to, to make a parole valid, which, by the laws of war, or by the pro¬ 
visions of a particular cartel, would be disowned as not valid. 

While we set forth these principles as binding, we deny emphatically that 
the orders appealed to by Mr. Ould sanction his departure from the laws of w^,r 
or the cartel, the express purpose of Order No. 207 (1863) being to enforce the 
provisions of the existing cartel. It sets out by an appeal, in paragraph I, to 
the cartel, by its date and the date of the order by which it was published, the 
provisions of which are to be enforced; and this is again set forward in para¬ 
graph II. 

Order No. 207 publishes a very important law of war, in paragraph IV, in 
announcing, that “ the. obligations imposed by the general laws and usages of 
war, upon the non-combatant inhabitants of a section of country passed over by 
an invading army, cease when the military occupation ceases; and any pledge 
or parole given by such persons, in regard to future service, is null and of no 
effect.’ ; This paragraph of Order No. 20 T does not originate, it merely an¬ 
nounces, the law of war on the subject to which it refers; but it is particularly 
significant, in view of the probable character of many of the paroles claimed as 
valid, in the tabular statement furnished by Mr. Ould, in which, under the head 
of “ where captured,” the statement uses generalities which can in no sense be 
received. Thus, captures are said to have been made in “Kentucky and Tennes¬ 
see; ” in “Tennessee; ” in “Kentucky and Tennessee,” (again;) in “Tennessee,” 
(again;) in “Kentucky and Tennessee,” (a third time;) in “Barbour county, 
Kentucky,” (whether soldiers or citizens we cannot tell;) in “Western Virginia;” 


54 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


in “Western Virginia,” (again;) in “Hinds county, Mississippi;” in “Eastern 
Virginia;” in “Mississippi;” in “Kentucky and Tennessee,” (for the fourth 
time,) &c. 

In fine, the statement is wholly informal and without authority. 

You will please furnish Mr. Ould a certified copy of this communication. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General Volunteers, Corner for the Exchange of Prisoners. 
Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, 

Commissioner for the Exchange of Prisoners. 


Office of Commissioner for Exchange, 

Port Monroe , Va., November 7, 1863. 

Sir : In your communication of October 27 you state, “ that General Or¬ 
ders Nos. 49 and 100 were not sent to you at the same time. ” I forward you 
herewith a copy of Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow’s letter, enclosing to you the two 
orders mentioned, and bearing date May 22, 1863. 

These two orders announced general rules based on the usages of war, which, 
in the absence of any specific agreement between belligerents, should govern in 
paroling prisoners of war; but in this case a cartel had already been agreed upon, 
and no order of either party could set aside any of its provisions. For instance, 
a commander, on being captured, might under some circumstances give a parole 
for himself and his command, without violating General Order No. 100, (which 
includes General Order No. 49;) but unless the paroling was done at City Point, 
or other named place, it would be in violation of the cartel, and the paroles must 
therefore be set aside as invalid. No exception could be taken to this course 
by the party granting the parole, because the validity of the parole depends on 
a strict compliance with the provisions of the cartel; and when any other course 
is followed than that pointed out by that instrument, any claim based upon it 
must fail. Paragraph 130 of Order 100, which prescribes the duties which a pa¬ 
roled soldier may perform, is also, to some extent, set aside by the cartel, which re¬ 
stricts these duties to a much more limited field than the order. Paragraph 131 is 
also made inoperative by the cartel, because it could only apply to paroles not 
given at the points designated for delivery; all such paroles are by the cartel 
made invalid, and the paroling party could therefore have no pretext for claiming 
their recognition. If such a claim could be admitted, the effect at Gettysburg 
would have been, to give to General Lee the privilege of placing his prisoners 
in our hands, to be delivered to him, at our own charge, at City Point, which is 
so manifestly absurd that even you cannot claim it. General Order No. 207 
was intended simply to announce to the army that the irregular practice of 
paroling small squads of men and individuals, without rolls or other reliable 
evidence of any kind, which had very generally prevailed, must be discontin¬ 
ued, and that thereafter the cartel should be rigidly adhered to. This announce¬ 
ment had been made to the confederate authorities through you. 

There have been no “successive changes of purpose in the matter of paroles,” 
as you assert, nor changes of any kind, except so far as to return to a strict ob¬ 
servance of the cartel; and this is a change, the propriety of which I do not 
think you can question. 

The figures which I gave you in my letter of October 17 were not given 
as embracing all declared exchanged in General Order 167, of June 8, but 
only those which Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow used to make up the balance due 
him after arranging that declaration with you. It was the declaration which 
Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow made to cover this balance that you cite as the pre- 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


55 


[ ©<1 -nt which authorized you to announce so unexpectedly your declarations of 
September 12. The 80th Illinois, 311 men—not 400, as you say—was accident¬ 
ally omitted from my letter, and, by a clerical error, 73d Indiana was written 
75th Indiana. Paragraphs 5 and 6 of General Order 167 cover the troops re¬ 
ferred to, and other paragraphs cover the captures mentioned by you. Any 
discrepancy in numbers declared exchanged at that time, on either side, is of 
little consequence, as up to the date of that order it is assumed that the exchange 
account was satisfactorily balanced. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchange. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Virginia. 


Office of Commissioner for Exchange, 

Fort Monroe, Virginia, November 12, 1863. 

Sir : I acknowledge the receipt of your communication of October 31. 

I would have been surprised at its contents had I not been previously ac¬ 
quainted with your habit of special pleading and of perverting the truth. In 
the last interview but one which I had with you, you stated to me distinctly and 
unequivocally that you would make declarations of exchange whenever you 
conscientiously felt that you had the right so to do, for the purpose of putting 
men into the field. You made this statement not only once, but two or three 
times. In my previous interviews with you, I had taken the precaution to have 
verbal propositions of any importance made by you reduced to writing. On 
this occasion I refrained from my usual course—now much to my regret, as I 
will do you the justice to say that I have no doubt you have forgotten what 
occurred at that meeting. 

The following extracts from two of your letters will probably serve to con¬ 
vince you that it is highly probable that, while laboring under the excitement 
hinted at above, you may have made the statement attributed to you. From 
your letter dated October 2, 1863, I take the following: 

“ I now inform you, in view of the recent declaration of exchange made by 
you, coupled with your failure either to agree to or decline the proposition 
made to you on the 24th of August last, in relation to paroles, that the confed¬ 
erate authorities will consider themselves entirely at liberty to pursue any course 
as to exchanges of paroles which they may deem right and proper.” 

Again, in your letter to me of October 16, you stated as follows : 

“ I reserve to myself the right to make further declarations of exchange from- 
time to time, based upon the paroles in my office, until I have declared ex¬ 
changed a number of confederate soldiers equal to that of federal troops de¬ 
clared exchanged by your last notice.” 

In these two extracts you arrogate to your government and yourself the right 
to declare exchanges. Of course, a government in as prosperous a condition as 
the confederacy, with men in superabundance to put into the field, would not de¬ 
clare men exchanged for that purpose, nor would a high-toned, honorable gentle¬ 
man, who has reserved to himself the right to declare exchanges, use that right 
with the idea of putting men in the field. Yet it is well known that many offi¬ 
cers and men captured at Vicksburg were in the battle of Ohickamauga. I 
deem it proper here to say a few words in relation to the 18,000 paroles which 
you state you have in your possession, and which you claim as valid. You rest 
the validity of these paroles (which I have never seen, and which you acknowl¬ 
edge to have been accumulating for many months) on general orders of the 
United States government, Nos. 49 and 100. These two orders announce 




56 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


general rules basedon the usages of war; but a cartel having been agreed upon, 
no order of either party could set aside its provisions, which I have stated to 
you on several occasions. For instance, a commander on being captured might, 
under some circumstances, give a parole for himself and his command without 
violating General Order No. 100 (which includes General Order No. 49;) but unless 
the paroling was done at City Point or other named place, it would be in vio¬ 
lation of the cartel. Nor could exceptions be taken to this course by the party 
granting the parole, because the validity of the parole depends on a strict com¬ 
pliance with the provisions of the cartel. Paragraph 130 of Order 100, which 
prescribes the duties that a paroled soldier may perform, is also to some extent 
set aside by the cartel, which restricts these duties to a much more limited field 
than the order. Paragraph 131, which you attempt to make so much of, is also 
rendered inoperative by the cartel, because it could only apply to paroles not 
given at the points designated for delivery; but all such paroles are by the 
cartel made invalid, and the paroling party, therefore, has no pretext for claim¬ 
ing their recognition. Had such a claim been admitted, the effect at Gettysburg 
would have been to give to General Lee the privilege of placing his prisoners in 
our hands, to be delivered to him at City Point at our own charge—a claim so 
manifestly absurd that* I am surprised that even you should have had the assu¬ 
rance to make it. Yet, on precisely this ground rests the foundation for the 
18,000 paroles which you claim as valid. 

Paroles on the field of battle, often given in haste by an enemy unable to 
take care of or receive them, are informal and invalid by the laws of war. 
Most of the paroles above mentioned were taken by guerillas, bushwhackers, 
and detached commands in the west. No possession was ever had, no delivery 
was ever made, and no rolls have ever been furnished of those giving them. 
On the capture of a town by a cavalry raid, the command remained long enough 
to take the paroles of the unarmed citizens there, and then decamped, leaving 
the paroled men behind, and forwarding the paroles to accumulate in your office 
in Richmond; yet you have the assurance to say that you expect the United 
States government to exchange prisoners legitimately captured in battle, and 
now held in custody, for such paroles as these. 

It is well for you to write letters filled with well-feigned indignation at any 
imputation upon the integrity or honesty of your government or yourself, for 
publication in the south, to delude the suffering people there into the belief that 
you and your government are doing everything to cause a resumption of ex¬ 
changes ; but I feel it my duty to say, that your principles are so flexible, and 
your rule of action so slightly influenced by a sense of truth, honesty, or honor, 
that I find it almost impossible to arrive at any fair understanding with you on 
the subject, and all my efforts thus far, for the above reason, have been fruitless. 

In your communication of October 27 you use the following language : “ I 
state that General Orders Nos. 49 and 100 were not sent to me at the same 
time. I received General Order No. 49 long before No. 100 was delivered to 
me. Their respective dates will show that to be the fact. My own personal 
recollection is that General Order No. 100 was never communicated in a letter.” 
You then proceed to impress the public with an idea of your careful habits as 
follows : “ It is my habit faithfully to keep all letters written by the federal 
agent of exchanges.” But this most important letter happened to be mislaid ! 
which intelligence you convey to the southern public as follows: “A careful 
search of the records of my office does not disclose any letter from Lieutenant 
Colonel Ludlow communicating General Order No. 100.” On November 7th I 
sent you a copy of the letter hereto annexed, copied from Lieutenant Colonel 
Ludlow’s letter-book; but through fear that it might have met the fate of the 
original and miscarried, I send it again: 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


57 


“ Headquarters Department of Va., 7th Armv Corps, 

“ Fort Monroe, Virginia, May 22, 18G3. 

“ Sir : I have tlie honor to enclose to you copies of General Orders Nos. 49 
and 100, of the War Department, announcing regulations and instructions for the 
government of the United States forces in the field in the matter of paroles. 
These, together with the stipulations of the cartel, will govern our army. I 
would invite your special attention to article 7 of the cartel, which provides 
that all prisoners of war shall be sent to places of delivery therein specified. 
The execution of this article will obviate much discussion and difficulty grow¬ 
ing out of the mode, time, and place of giving paroles. No paroles or exchanges 
will be considered binding except those under the stipulations of said article, 
permitting commanders of two opposing armies to exchange or release on parole 
at other points mutually agreed on by said commanders. 

“ I am, very respectfullv, your obedient servant, 

“ WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, 

“ Lieut. Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

“Hon. Robert Ould, 

“ Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.” 

It appears to me that you have been unfortunate on two occasions : first, in 
forgetting the statement you made to me, alluded to in the beginning of this 
communication ; and second, in your not having received the above letter. As 
communications between the agents of exchanges go through but two hands, 
(the assistant agents,) it strikes me as a little extraordinary that out of hundreds 
the above should be the only one to miscarry. 

The denial of facts which abound in your last letter, though they may have 
some weight in the south, will not avail to convince the people of the north that 
you are not utterly reckless of integrity and fairness, and full of finesse in your 
declarations of exchanges, and the foundations you claim for them. 
Respectfully, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchanges. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent of Exchange, Richmond , Va. 


Confederate States of America, 

War Department, Richmond, Virginia, November 21, 1863. 

Sir: I have received the letter of General Hitchcock, relating to the memo¬ 
randum of paroles, which I forwarded to you. 

General Hitchcock seems to have misapprehended my purpose somewhat in 
sending you that memorandum. You requested a list of the paroles which I 
claimed, and the paper which I sent to you was only intended to be understood 
as a memorandum in the way of notice to you. I did not expect you to agree 
to recognize the paroles therein referred to in such a general way, upon the 
mere presentation of the paper. The evidence which supports that memorandum 
of paroles is on file in my office. If we could only have agreed upon the prin¬ 
ciple by which they should be computed and adjusted, all the rest would have 
been easy work. I would have presented the paroles themselves, or authen¬ 
ticated lists of them. The fact that they were given, the circumstances under 
which they were given, the parties giving them, would all appear upon the face 
of the papers in proper form. As General Hitchcock seems to indicate a wil¬ 
lingness to reopen this matter, I will state for his benefit frankly the principles 
by which I propose to be governed. 



58 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


1. I will not claim tlie paroles of citizens. All the paroles which I will pro¬ 
duce will he those of federal soldiers in actual service at the time of capture. 

2. I will show the particular locality where the parties were captured, the 
command to which they belonged, the command which captured them, and the 
precise date of each transaction. 

3. I will accompany the presentation with such full and particular evidence 
as will enable you to verify the truth of the case by your own records and the 
statements of your own officers and soldiers. 

4. More than thirty of the forty-four items in my memorandum are cases of 
captures made previous to the 22d of May, 1863. It has never at any time 
been alleged that I had any notice before that time that paroling upon the 
battle-field was not to be permitted. The federal authorities have charged 
against me paroles taken upon the battle-field up to that date, and have received 
credit for them. I would have received credit for these items many months 
ago, if you had have had paroles or prisoners of ours to have off-setted against 
them. I will thank General Hitchcock to inform me upon what principle he 
can reject those thirty-odd items. If he wants evidence that I have allowed 
precisely similar paroles, I will furnish it. 

5. As to such of the paroles as were given between the 22d of May, 1863, 
and the 3d of July, (the date of General Order No. 207,) I shall contend that 
they shall be allowed under the provisions of paragraph 131 of General Order 
No. 100. I will allow any similar paroles given to you during the same period. 

6. As to all paroles given after the 3d of July, 1863, I will allow General 
Order No. 207 to have full force. No paroles from and after that date are to 
be valid, unless the paroling is in pursuance of the agreement of the com¬ 
manders of two opposing armies. 

7. In my memorandum the officers and non-commissioned officers are reduced 
to 'privates. There are but very few, if any, commissioned officers on the lists. 
They have already been exchanged and checked off. This is of itself proof 
that your authorities have heretofore recognized these paroles. The lists and 
paroles will show the grade of all the parties. 

8. I have been greatly misunderstood by General Hitchcock, if he thinks I 
have refused to be governed by your general orders. General Hitchcock 
says, “We appeal to those orders, and intend to be governed by them; and if 
the enemy would assume them, and be governed by them also, all difficulties on 
the subject of paroles would cease.” I have already expressed my willingness 
to be governed by your general orders “on the subject of paroles.” It was 
my original proposition. I adhere to it still. Let, then, “all difficulties cease.” 

9. If our present difficulties are to cease, let me, for the sake of future har¬ 
mony, suggest that there be some definite meaning attached to the phrase “com¬ 
manders of two opposing armies.” Who are such commanders'? We can 
readily understand that General Lee and General Meade are such. But is 
General Thomas the commander of one of the opposing armies at Chattanooga, 
or is it General Grant? Was General Pemberton the commander of an opposing 
army, when he was subject to the orders of General Johnston, who was in his 
immediate neighborhood ? Was General Gardner the commander of an opposing 
army at Port Hudson? If so, is not every one who holds a separate com¬ 
mand such a commander? Does size constitute an army? If a captain or 
lieutenant is on detached service, is he the commander of an opposing army, 
and can he be released on parole by an agreement made with the officer who 
captured him, if he is on detached service? I make these inquiries of General 
Hitchcock in no captious spirit. They do present difficulties to my mind, and 
I should like to know what is to be considered as the true interpretation of the 
phrase. All the captures after the 3d of July, 1863, which I ask you to recog¬ 
nize, were in pursuance of “an agreement between the commanders of two 
opposing armies.” I cannot see how any difficulty can arise between General 


EXCHANGE OF PPJSONERS. 59 

Hitchcock and myself after his letter, except as to captures between May 22, 
1S63, and July 3, 1863. They are but very few in number. 

1 will thank you to send this letter, or a copy of it, to General Hitchcock. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ROBERT OULD, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, 

Agent of Exchange. 


Office of Commissioner for Exchange, 

Fort Monroe, Virginia, November 25, 1863. 

Sir : I have the honor to report to you that I have just returned from an in¬ 
terview with the rebel agent of exchange, Mr. Ould. In consequence of the 
reports of the terrible cruelties inflicted upon our prisoners in Richmond, which 
were given to me by the surgeons who were just released, I deemed it a fit 
opportunity to renew an offer to Mr. Ould, which, though unofficial, I stated to 
him would, no doubt, if accepted, be carried out by the United States author¬ 
ities, and which I would urge them to do by every means in my power. The 
offer was this: To send immediately to City Point twelve thousand or more 
confederate prisoners, to be exchanged for the federal soldiers now confined in 
the south. This proposition was distinctly and unequivocally refused by Mr. 
Ould, on the ground that it would be making twelve thousand or more special 
exchanges. He stated that the only condition upon which he would agree to 
the release of our prisoners would be that we should send south a number of 
confederate prisoners equal to that of federal prisoners in their hands, and 
parole and send within their lines the balance of the confederates in the custody 
of the United States authorities. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier General and Commissioner for Exchange. 

Major General E. A. Hitchcock, 

Commissioner of Exchanges, Washington , D. C. 


Washington City, D. C., November 23, 1863. 

Sir: Your note, forwarding a copy of Mr. Ould’s letter of the 18th instant, 
addressed to yourself as an answer to my letter of the 13th, has been received. 
Mr. Ould, I perceive, states that our prisoners in Richmond receive the same 
rations as soldiers in the field, “according to the regulations.” 

The “ regulations ” may be such as Mr. Ould states them to be, but that our 
prisoners receive the “ rations ” as stated is contradicted by all the evidence 
that has reached me outside of Mr. Ould’s statement; and this evidence rests 
upon the statements of eye-witnesses, and of actual sufferers under the treatment 
received in Richmond and at Belle Isle, besides the testimony of facts disclosed 
by the visible condition of a delivery of some one hundred and eighty prisoners 
made at City Point, many of whom died before reaching Fort Monroe from 
starvation, according to the judgment of a competent medical officer. 

Upon the evidence above stated, the Secretary of War ordered supplies to he 
sent for distribution to the remaining prisoners; and this state of things induced 
the letter of the 13th instant, proposing to receive on parole the prisoners, and 
to hold them off duty until exchanged, independently of all existing difficulties 
on the subject of exchange. 




60 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Mr. Ould declines this offer, and proposes that if we will send to the south 
the prisoners in our hands they will send ours to us, “ the excess on one side 
or the other to be on parole.” 

Whatever appearance of verbal fairness there may be in this, the conduct of 
Mr. Ould, in connexion with recent declarations of exchange, will not permit us 
to regard this proposal as made in good faith, and we cannot rely upon its being 
carried out by the enemy. 

In the first place, the proclamation of Mr. Davis, and other public acts of 
those in power in the south, remain in full force, so far as we know, and are ac¬ 
tually being enforced in the south, by which a distinction is made between 
classes of troops employed by the United States, and officers serving with 
colored troops, if taken prisoners, do not receive, and are not to receive, the 
treatment due to prisoners of war, whilst the enlisted men of colored troops, 
when taken prisoners, it has been publicly declared, shall be sold into slavery. 
That this distinction is made actual in the treatment of prisoners of war we 
know in some cases, and have much reason to apprehend it in others which 
have not been permitted to see the light. 

We have positive information of the fact that two colored seamen of the 
United States marines were captured near Charleston and were not treated as 
prisoners of war. Two free colored young men, with a Massachusetts regiment, 
were captured near Galveston and publicly sold into slavery. 

In a recent case I made a proposal to release mutually all chaplains, and the 
proposal was “cordially accepted; ” but although we delivered about or more 
than twice the number we received, the enemy held back the chaplain of a 
Massachusetts colored regiment, who was confined and in irons at Columbia, 
South Carolina. In addition to these facts, Mr. Ould, not long since, declared 
that he would proceed to make declarations of exchange whenever he conscien¬ 
tiously felt that he had the right so to do, for the purpose of putting men into 
the field. 

If this announcement means anything at all, it means that the usages of war, 
and the express provisions of the cartel, are subordinate to the individual de¬ 
termination and purposes of Mr Ould on the subject of declarations of ex¬ 
changes ; and, as a consequence, we must suppose that if Mr. Ould can obtain 
possession of the “ excess ” of prisoners now in our possession, he will “ pro¬ 
ceed” to declare them exchanged, and put them into the field upon what he 
might allege as his sense of right. When called upon for an explanation, he 
would prepare what he might call a “ tabular statement of paroles,” as he re¬ 
cently did, made up from guerilla captures of citizens in remote parts of the 
country, set down as captured at such places as Kentucky, as Tennessee, as 
Mississippi, as at such a place as Kentucky and Tennessee, not in any instance 
properly reporting to whom delivered. 

Mr. Quid has shown the latitudinarian construction he puts upon his powers, 
and the nature of his sense of right , by writing a letter on the 10th October, 
which he has not thought it necessary to communicate to us, but which has 
been published in a Richmond paper, by which he took upon himself the power 
to declare that the whole number of men delivered by General Banks at Mobile, 
embracing several thousand men captured at Port Hudson, were under no obli¬ 
gation to observe their parole. 

Mr. Ould has been a mere agent under the cartel, and when a question comes 
up as to the import of the cartel, its meaning, &c., Mr. Ould has no power to 
decide the question, for that belongs to the parties by whose authority the cartel 
was made. 

The cartel provided two places for the delivery of prisoners of war—City 
Point and Vicksburg; but it provided, also, that when these places, or either of 
them, should become unavailable by the exigencies of war, some other point 
might be agreed upon. 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


61 


Vicksburg having fallen into our hands became unavailable, as contemplated 
by the cartel; and General Banks agreed with the rebel commander in the field 
that General Banks would deliver the Port Hudson prisoners on parole, and 
they were delivered accordingly. Mr. Ould knew that those men were uncon¬ 
ditionally in the hands of General Banks. They had been “ reduced to pos¬ 
session,and had been taken to New Orleans, and might have been sent north 
if General Banks pleased. Instead of sending them to the north to swell the 
number of prisoners of war in our hands at the north, General Banks confided in 
the honor of t a rebel commander, and “agreed” to parole these men at Mobile, 
Vicksburg being by the exigencies of war no longer available as a place of de¬ 
livery. 

In that state of things Mr. Ould takes upon himself to decide that the de¬ 
livery at Mobile was invalid, that place not being named in the cartel for the 
delivery of prisoners. 

With a sense of right so obtuse as this act indicates, it is doing no injustice 
to Mr. Ould to say that we cannot confide in any pledge he would make to carry 
out a special agreement; and we must accordingly decline to acquiesce in any 
measure which would throw into his hands a large body of prisoners of war 
under parole, to be by him released from its obligations according to his sense 
of right. 

You will understand from the above statement that Mr. Ould’s decision 
touching the prisoners delivered by General Banks is not recognized as justi¬ 
fiable or valid, and that we claim that they are still prisoners of war on parole. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General Vols., Comm'r for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, 

Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Washington City, D. C., November 28, 1863. 

Sir : I have read the copy you forwarded of Mr. Ould’s communication of 
the 21st instant, in which, I perceive, Mr. Ould thinks I misapprehend his pur¬ 
pose in forwarding the “ tabular statement ” of alleged valid paroles made 
chiefly in the west and south. I suppose that the tabular statement was sent 
to you in explanation of the large number of prisoners declared exchanged by 
Mr. Ould, the propriety of which had been very properly questioned by you. 
If that was not the purpose of the statement, I regret that it fell under my 
notice. If Mr. Ould wishes either to present another “ statement,’’ or to furnish 
detailed explanations of that already before us, it will be time enough to con¬ 
sider the points he may raise when he presents them. In the mean time, I 
think it necessary to observe that neither Mr. Ould, yourself, or myself, have 
powers outside of the cartel, except those plainly necessary for the execution of 
its provisions; but in this connexion, I must affirm that the first shocks given to 
the free and continued execution of the provisions of the cartel came from Mr. 
Davis in his “message” of the 12th of January, of the present year, in which 
he declares his purpose of delivering to the several State authorities south all 
commissioned officers of the federal army who might be captured, to be tried 
under State laws for the crime of exciting servile insurrections. This stands 
yet as the avowed purpose of the chief executive of the States engaged in re¬ 
bellion. It has not been annulled in any form whatever; nor has the act of 
the southern congress in support of Mr. Davis’s views been in any manner re¬ 
pealed or disavowed. Without looking any further, I appeal to this as a full 
justification of the federal commander-in-chief in suspending the operation of 
that portion of article 4 of the cartel, which requires all “ prisoners of war to be 



62 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


discharged on parole in ten days after their capture; ” it being manifest that 
the authorities south could not parole prisoners according to the cartel, and 
carry out their declared purpose of delivering the officers over to State authori¬ 
ties to be tried as criminals under State laws. 

Whatever may have been the reason why the declared purpose of Mr. Davis 
has not been extensively carried into effect, the fact of the existence of that 
purpose, sanctioned, as we know it to have been, is a sufficient reason on our 
part for not delivering prisoners on parole particularly, as there is every reason 
to believe that the purpose of Mr. Davis has only been arrested by the fact that, 
by the fortune of war, we had in our hands more prisoners than were held in 
the south. In addition to the above, the treatment of colored troops, (which 
make an integral portion of the federal army,) when captured in the south, is too 
well known to permit us for a moment to suppose in the present state of things 
that there is any design in the south to treat that class of troops according to 
the laws of war applicable to other troops of the federal army; and until the 
southern authorities make some distinct declaration of a purpose to treat colored 
troops and their officers in the employment of the United States government in 
all respects according to the laws of war, as applicable to other troops, we can¬ 
not recede from the position taken by the commander-in-chief above referred to. 
The wisdom and the necessity of existing orders on this subject will sufficiently 
defend the measure in view of the threats and practices of the south, which only 
need to be known to justify this measure. 

It is very well known that Colonel Ludlow made these subjects the frequent 
topic of conversation with Mr. Ould, without producing any impression on Mr. 
Ould, tending to the point of inducing a declaration by authority from the 
south that all officers of the federal army, as well as enlisted men, shall receive, 
when captured, the treatment due to prisoners of war, with the express declara¬ 
tion that colored troops, both officers and men, shall receive similar treatment. 

You will please communicate these views to Mr. Ould, with a request that he 
will lay them before his government. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General Vols., Comm’r for Exchange of Prisoners. 

Brigadier General S. A. Meredith, 

Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners. 


Headquarters 18th Army Corps, 

Department of Virginia and North Carolina, 

Fortress Monroe, December 17, 1863. 

General : You are instructed to take charge of the matter of exchange of 
prisoners at City Point, and the prisoners at Point Lookout, Fort McHenry, and 
at Fort Norfolk, are put under your charge for that purpose, and such others 
will be sent you from time to time, upon notification to the War Department, as 
may be thought advisable. 

You are herein instructed not to make any exchange which shall not return 
to you, man for man, officer for officer of equal rank, with those paroled and 
sent forward by yourself, regarding, of course, for motives of humanity, in the 
earlier exchanges of those officers and men, on either side, who have been the 
longest confined. 

Colored troops and their officers will be put upon an equality in making 
exchanges, as of right, with other troops. 

Colored men in civil employment, captured by the enemy, may also be ex¬ 
changed for other men in civil employment taken by our forces. 

You are permitted, in conducting the exchange, to waive for the present the 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


63 


consideration of tlie questions of parole and excess now pending between tlie 
confederate belligerent authorities and this government, leaving them untouched 
as they stand, until further interchange of views between those authorities and 
yourself. 

In conducting this delicate and, perhaps, difficult matter, you will see to it 
that in no degree the protection of the government is withdrawn from colored 
soldiers of the. United States and the officers commanding them, and that, in no 
respect, so far as results from your action, the honor or dignity of the govern¬ 
ment shall be compromised. 

Brigadier General Meredith is ordered to report to you, and will be relieved 
from further duty as commissioner of exchange, except under your orders. 

The conduct of the flag of truce, and the necessary transportation to carry 
out these instructions, are placed at your disposal. 

You will report, as often as practicable, to this department your action under 
this letter of instruction and for further instruction, 

By order of the Secretary of War. 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General of Volunteers and Comrrir for Exchange of Prisoners. 

A true copy. 

E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General of Volunteers. 


War Department, 
Washington City, December 16, 1863. 

General : You will proceed immediately to Fortress Monroe, and take any 
measure that may be practicable for the release, exchange, or relief of United 
States officers and soldiers held as prisoners by the rebels. 

You are authorized and directed to confer with Major General Butler on the 
subject, and may authorize him, as special agent, commissioner, or otherwise, to 
procure their release or exchange upon any just terms not conflicting with 
principles on which the department has heretofore acted in reference to the ex¬ 
change of colored troops and their officers, and not surrendering to the rebels 
any prisoners without just equivalents. You may, if you deem it proper, 
relieve General Meredith, and direct him to report to the Adjutant General for 
orders. 

Yours, truly, 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

{Secretary of War. 

Major General Hitchcock, 

Commissioner of Exchange of Prisoners. 


A true copy. 


E. A. HITCHCOCK, 

Major General of Volunteers. 


General Orders, ) War Department, Adjutant General’s Office, 

No. 142. \ Washington , September 25, 1862. 

The following is the cartel under which prisoners are exchanged in the ex¬ 
isting war with the southern States: 




64 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


Haxall’s Landing, on James River, Va., 

July 22, 1862. 

The undersigned, having been commissioned by the authorities they re¬ 
spectively represent to make arrangements for a general exchange of prisoners 
of war, have agreed to the following articles: 

Art. 1 . It is hereby agreed and stipulated that all prisoners of w r ar held 
by either party, including those taken oil private armed vessels known as pri¬ 
vateers, shall be discharged upon the conditions and terms following: 

Prisoners to be exchanged man for man and officer for officer; privateers to 
be placed upon the footing of officers and men of the navy. 

Men and officers of lower grades may be exchanged for officers of a higher 
grade, and men and officers of different services may be exchanged according 
to the following scale of equivalents: 

A general commanding in chief or an admiral shall be exchanged for officers 
of equal rank, or for sixty privates or common seamen. 

A flag officer or major general shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank, 
or for forty privates or common seamen. 

A commodore carrying a broad pennant or a brigadier general shall be ex¬ 
changed for officers of equal rank, or twenty privates or common seamen. 

A captain in the navy or a colonel shall be exchanged for officers of equal 
rank, or for fifteen privates or common seamen. 

A lieutenant colonel or a commander in the navy shall be exchanged for 
officers of equal rank, or for ten privates or common seamen. 

A lieutenant commander or a major shall be exchanged for officers of equal 
rank, or eight privates or common seamen. 

A lieutenant or a master in the navy or a captain in the army or marines 
shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank, or six privates or common seamen. 

Master’s mates in the navy or lieutenants and ensigns in the army shall be 
exchanged for officers of equal rank, or four privates or common seamen. 

Midshipmen, warrant officers in the navy, masters of merchant vessels, and 
commanders of privateers, shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank, or three 
privates or common seamen. 

Second captains, lieutenants, or mates of merchant vessels or privateers, and 
all petty officers in the navy, and all non-commissioned officers in the army or 
marines, shall be severally exchanged for persons of equal rank, or for two 
privates or common seamen; and private soldiers or common seamen shall be 
exchanged for each other, man for man. 

Art. 2. Local, State, civil, and militia rank, held by persons not in actual 
military service, will not be recognized, the basis of exchange being the grade 
actually held in the naval and military service of the respective parties. 

Art. 3. If citizens held by either party on charges of disloyalty or any 
alleged civil offence are exchanged, it shall only be for citizens. Captured sut¬ 
lers, teamsters, and all civilians in the actual service of either party, to be ex¬ 
changed for persons in similar position. 

Art. 4. All prisoners of war to be discharged on parole in ten days after 
their capture, and the prisoners now held and those hereafter taken to be trans¬ 
ported to the points mutually agreed upon, at the expense of the capturing 
party. The surplus prisoners not exchanged shall not be permitted to take up 
arms again, nor to serve as military police or constabulary force in any fort, 
garrison, or field-work held by either of the respective parties, nor as guards of 
prisons, depots, or stores, nor to discharge any duty usually performed by 
soldiers, until exchanged under the provisions of this cartel. The exchange is 
not to be considered complete until the officer or soldier exchanged for has been 
actually restored to the lines to which he belongs. 

Art. 5. Each party, upon the discharge of prisoners of the other party, is 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


65 


authorized to discharge an equal number of their own officers or men from 
parole, furnishing at the same time to the other party a list of their prisoners 
discharged and of their own officers and men relieved from parole; thus ena¬ 
bling each party to relieve from parole such of their own'officers and men as the 
party may choose. The lists thus mutually furnished will keep both parties 
advised of the true condition of the exchange of prisoners. 

Art. 6 . The stipulations and provisions above mentioned to be of binding 
obligation during the continuance of the war, it matters not which party may 
have the surplus of prisoners, the great principles involved being—1st. An 
equitable exchange of prisoners, man for man, officer for officer, or officers of 
higher grade exchanged for officers of lower grade, or for privates according to 
the scale of equivalents; 2d. That privateers and officers and men of different 
services may be exchanged according to the same scale of equivalents; 3d. 
That all prisoners, of whatever arm of service, are to be exchanged or paroled 
in ten days from the time of their capture, if it be practicable to transfer them 
to their own lines in that time; if not, as soon thereafter as practicable; 4th. 
That no officer, soldier, or employe, in the service of either party, is to be con¬ 
sidered as exchanged and absolved from his parole until his equivalent has 
actually reached the lines of his friends; 5th. That the parole forbids the per¬ 
formance of field, garrison, police, or guard, or constabulary duty. 

JOHN A. DIX, 
Major General. 

IX H. HILL, 

Major General C. S. A. 

SUPPLExMENTARY ARTICLES. 

Art. 7. All prisoners of war now held on either side, and all prisoners here¬ 
after taken, shall be sent with all reasonable despatch to A. M. Aikens’, below 
Dutch gap, on the James river, Virginia, or to Vicksburg, on the Mississippi 
river, in the State of Mississippi, and there exchanged or paroled until such 
exchange can be effected, notice being previously given by each party of the 
number of prisoners it will send, and the time when they will be delivered at 
those points respectively; and in case the vicissitudes of war shall change the 
military relations of the places designated in this article to the contending par¬ 
ties so as to render the same inconvenient for the delivery and exchange of 
prisoners, other places, bearing as nearly as may be the present local relations 
of said places to the lines of said parties, shall be by mutual agreement sub¬ 
stituted. But nothing in this article contained shall prevent the commanders 
of two opposing armies from exchanging prisoners or releasing them on parole 
from other points mutually agreed on by said commanders. 

Art. 8. For the purpose of carrying into 'effect the foregoing articles of 
agreement, each party will appoint two agents, to be called agents for the ex¬ 
change of prisoners of war, whose duty it shall be to communicate with each 
other by correspondence and otherwise, to prepare the lists of prisoners, to attend 
to the delivery of the prisoners at the places agreed on, and to carry out promptly, 
effectually, and in good faith, all the details and provisions of the said arti¬ 
cles of agreement. 

Art. 9 And in case any misunderstanding shall arise in regard to any clause 
or stipulation in the foregoing articles, it is mutually agreed that such misun¬ 
derstanding shall not interrupt the release of prisoners on parole, as herein 

Ex. Doc. 17-5 






66 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 


provided, but shall be made the subject of friendly explanations, in order that 
the object of this agreement may neither be defeated nor postponed. 

JOHN A. DIX, 
Major General. 

D. H. HILL, 


By order of the Secretary of War. 
Official: 


Major General C. S. A. 

L. THOMAS, 
Adjutant General. 


Assistant Adjutant General. 


Headquarters 18th Army Corps, 

Department of Virginia and North Carolina, 

Fortress Monroe, December 7, 1863. 

Sir: In obedience to your telegram, 1 enclose “ the correspondence between 
the United States authorities and the rebel authorities on the exchange of pris¬ 
oners, and the different propositions connected with that subject,” so far as they 
have come from my office. 

My reports and letter of instructions you have in the office at Washington. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, 

Major General, Commanding. 

Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War. 


Headquarters 18th Army Corps, 

Department of Virginia and North Carolina, 

Fortress Monroe, February 2, 1862. 

Sir: 1 have been informed that the small-pox has, unfortunafely, broken out 
among the prisoner of war now in the hands of the confederate authorities, both 
at Belle Isle and at Lynchburg. Anxious, from obvious hum ape considerations, 
to prevent the spread of this terrible disorder, 1 have taken leave to forward fgr 
their use, by Major Mulford, assistant agent of exchange, in behalf of the United 
States, a package of vaccine matter, sufficient, as my medical director informs 
me, to vaccinate six thousand persons. May I ask that it shall be applied, un¬ 
der the direction of the proper me.dical officers, to the use intended. 

Being uncertain how far 1 can interfere as a matter of official duty, I beg you 
to consider this note either official or unofficial, as may best serve the purpose of 
alleviating the distresses of these unfortunate men. Since learning the fact, I 
have had no opportunity to apply to the department at Washington for instruc¬ 
tions. No formal receipt is needed; a note acknowledging the receipt of this 
being all that can be desired. If more vaccine matter is necessary it will be 
furnished. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfullv, your obedient servant, 

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, 

Major General, Commanding. 

Hon. Robert Ould, 

Agent of Exchange. 

Official copy: 

H. C. CLARKE, £ 
Captain and Aidc-de- Camp. .. 


LB D ’12 


































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